VampireHunter D:The Mysterious Girl from the North
by Onah
Summary: What if D finds a girl more mysterious than he is? Can he help her? And more importantly, can she help him on his quest to find and destroy his father, Dracula? In this world all is not what it seems.
1. Chapter 1 : Frontier

**Summary** : The world of Vampire Hunter D belongs to Hideyuki Kikuchi. The original characters, however, belong to me, and are a figment of my imagination. This story is merely my interpretation of what could happen. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed daydreaming it.

Vampire Hunter D: The Mysterious Girl from the North

Chapter 1

* * *

"But the extraordinary skill D had just displayed with his left hand would have been viewed by even the most veteran of Hunters as impossible in all but dreams cast by the Fair Folk" - Vampire Hunter D, p. 26.

* * *

The morning light that seeped through the forest trees awoke him, not as delicate kisses across his paraffin skin, but as a hateful reminder that sunlight was unkind to someone like him. Normally he awoke at the first light of dawn, capable of sleeping both during the day and at night, but the grove of great pines he had sheltered beneath offered such impenetrable shade that D slept right through the first rays of light. Not that he minded, a full nights rest was always welcome to him. That is, until the sunlight had managed to sneak through the pines to find him sleeping peacefully.

With this unfriendly reminder, the Hunter stood up and placed the saddle he had been using for a make-shift pillow back onto his horse. It didn't bother him so much, he was use to it. With no place to call home and no pillow to rest his head on, this was the life he was used to. Not just as a Vampire Hunter, but also as a dhampir. After making some small adjustments, the Hunter set out through the forest on horseback.

The shade offered to him was comforting as his cybernetic horse began to etch a new path across the dead pine needles and smaller shrubs. They continued on through the forest until the Sun reached the path in the sky straight above their heads. The light was intense. D began to carefully note his environment as he always did and realized the gradual change in vegetation probably meant there was water close by. Listening closely over the sound of thudding hooves, a sense of hearing far surpassing any human picked up on the sound of rushing water. A river, not too far away. Though his mount was partially robotic and in need of hardly the amount of maintenance as a normal horse, the beast still craved a good deal of fresh water.

He steered his horse in the direction of the sound and sure enough, his ears had not failed him. Breaking through the vegetation, a gently flowing river greeted them. D dismounted and lead his horse to the water before leaning his back against a nearby tree, beneath the shade. As the horse drank, another sound entered his ears. In time, the sound got closer and closer. Before the party could even break through the brush, D had already discerned their noise of hooves, footsteps and wagon wheels far before seeing them. They broke through the clearing at the shoreline, chattering a bit and doing the same thing that D had done earlier. Taking a pit stop and allowing their horses to take advantage of the opportunity of fresh water.

Some of the party members filled their drinking bags up with water before one member spotted the youth drabbed in black leaning against a tree with his arms crossed.

"Hey, you there!" The man shouted with a slight Frontier twang.

The figure in black gave no sign of recognition.

"We haven't seen another traveler for days! You ridin' out here all by yourself? That's crazy to do at night on the Frontier alone! We're headed toward the closest village, maybe you could accompany us. We could always use another guy with a weapon, especially at night. Where 'ya headed?"

"Freemont."

"Freemont village? What a coincidence, us too! You can ride with us. Whad'ya say, pal?"

* * *

D found himself riding with the party. The man who shouted to him earlier, as he came to learn, was called Lance. This man knew very well any traveler that journeyed across the frontier alone probably didn't need to accompany anyone for survival, and guessed the Hunter for a warrior. He told D if he helped get the party safely to the village he'd throw in a couple of coins. 

"I knew from the look of you that you had to be a warrior or a bodyguard for hire or something. Not too many men travel through here alone, unless they're really crazy or really good at their sport. I take it you may be a bit of both. So why are you out here all alone?"

"I'm a Vampire Hunter," the deep but calm voiced deadpanned.

The other people of the party felt a chill creep up their spines. Was this young man brave enough to take on those that called themselves the Nobility?

"Well, that certainly would explain a lot! Considered yourself hired then for a little protection. What shall we call you then, Vampire Hunter?" Lance wore a smile beneath his brown beard. He was sitting atop his gray horse with his hat shielding his eyes as he gazed at the Hunter next to him.

"D."

"D…? Just D? Is that short for somethi--"

"Hello, D," a sultry voice called out behind him. D glanced over his shoulder toward the source to see a beautiful, tan woman with long, black hair wearing a deep-red top and skirt. Her golden anklets and necklaces would jingle like chimes with the motion of the wagon she was riding on. She wore a seductive smile on her face. "My name is Mina, nice to meet you."

"Oh yeah," Lance grumbled. "Guess you'll wanna know who the rest of these guys are."

"Yes, Lance. Thank you for being so rude," Mina said, her accent adding to the pleasure of her voice.

"Besides me and Mina, the one inside her wagon is Piper."

Just then, the perky head of a young teenage girl poked out. She had short, light brown hair and a smile plastered to her face. Her cheeks were flushed like many of the other females that gazed upon D, and she had been stealing peeks at him from inside the wagon.

"Hi!" Piper beamed.

"And those folks over there are brothers Kyle and James."

"Hi," they both said simultaneously. One tipping his hat. Both wore similar vests and rode similar brown horses, yet Kyle was clearly a few years older than James.

"And on the wagon behind you is Granny." The stout, elderly woman didn't bother to wave or say hello.

"And resting in the shade inside there is her granddaughter."

Lance then lowered his voice so only D could hear, "Shame, that. Burn victim. Over ninety percent of her body. Covered from head to toe in bandages. Can't speak a word."

D looked forward, offering no reply to Lance as the party continued to ride on through the forest. They rode for many hours over the dry floor of pine needles and dead leaves. The wind blowing through the tree tops left a beautiful sound in the ears of those who bothered to listen, and the sound of bird calls gave the forest a sweet song. Yet oddly enough, whenever D rode near any of them, various birds would fly away or stop calling. If anyone noticed, no one ever said anything.

As evening approached, Lance could be heard cracking dirty jokes with Kyle and James. Mina and Piper were bickering back and forth as both sat atop the wagon, and Granny would give the occasional grumble to Lance to lead them on a more steady path whenever her wagon jumbled from passing over large rocks. The party seemed to be in high spirits, but as the sky passed from a warm orange hue and surrendered to indigo, everyone's nerves began to tighten.

Lance seemed to be the appointed leader, and said, "Let's make camp here." Some of the other party members seemed welcomed to the idea of rest.

In due time, a fire was roaring as it cooked wild hens on a spit, and the people were gathered around, sitting on logs for chairs. The horses were tethered close by and the wagons were facing the fire. D declined any food they offered which caused Lance to raise an eyebrow. "How do you keep so built if you don't eat anything?"

"I'll eat his share!" Piper replied, climbing down from the wagon and sitting at a log.

The brothers were engrossed in their own conversation and eating. Mina sat across from D and gazed at him through the flames. His long, black hair gleamed midnight even against the light of the fire. Straight and thick, a few select tendrils draped across his shoulders and the rest flowed behind his back. She took in his strong set jaw and firm pressed lips as a sign he had fought many battles and probably won most. She could tell this much from the muscles she discerned even beneath his coat. A faint blush tinted her cheeks and she began to search his face. His wide-brimmed hat was pulled low so she could not make out his eyes. How badly she wanted to look into those eyes.

"Hellooo? Mina?" Mina flushed in embarrassment as Piper waved a hand in front of her. "Want some?" Piper handed Mina her plate of food, and then much to her annoyance, almost pushed her off the log as she sat down right beside her. Piper began to eat like a barbarian before she too fell under the same spell Mina had.

Lance had just came back from grabbing something from his saddle when he beheld the sight of the two females staring at the gorgeous Hunter.

"Awww, come on now, ladies! This isn't dinner and a show! What's wrong with your boy Lance, here?"

Granny lifted her hand to push Lance aside. "Move it, you're blocking my view."

"Awww, not you too, grandma!"

Granny rasped, "Even an old woman enjoys the pleasure of looking at a pretty face every now and then. But I must say, I haven't seen one this handsome in a long time."

Lance grumbled and sat on the log next to D. "I bet you get this kind of attention from women all the time, don't you? I wish I had that problem. I've seen a lot of Hunters before, but hardly none of them were a sight to behold. Battle scars here and there, maybe pieces of an ear missing, sometimes even an eye. But not you. Come to think of it, you don't have a single scratch on you. Now that's odd, especially for a Vampire Hunter."

"Yes, especially for a Vampire Hunter…" Mina echoed. She was studying D now more profusely. "Even the birds are scared to go near you."

"He's a dhampir."

All eyes but D's turned toward Granny. Someone asked, "How did you know that?"

"I didn't, my granddaughter told me."

All eyes then stared back at D. Then, a surprising thing happened; D spoke up. "It's true."

"Well I'll be…" Lance said.

"That explains a lot," said Mina.

Kyle and James stared at the Hunter. "We've heard of you before." One spoke up. "Guess we should have put it together long ago that you were the first class Hunter. Anyway, it doesn't bother us a bit."

"Not me, either." Came the echo of the other brother.

Mina now held a fascination in her eyes. Piper and Lance seemed a little on edge. It wasn't that dhampir's kept their identities a secret, any clever person could tell what D was if he or she put the pieces together, it's just that this was the first time any of them had been so close to one of _them_. A creature of darkness. Yet, rumors on the Frontier had given this man a reputation, that no one was a better swordsman than him and that no human had ever become his victim.

"Well, no worries from us, D." Said Lance. "We won't drive you out with torches and pitchforks. We're glad to have you on our side, none of these night demons will stand a chance against someone like you. In the meantime, I'm retiring for the night." The man stood up and tipped his hat. "G'night, folks."

"Me too." Said Granny. She then waddled her stout frame inside her wagon and drew the curtain before blowing out a hanging lantern.

Kyle and James started up a quiet conversation while Piper huddled close to Mina beneath a blanket, shivering somewhat from the night air. Just when Piper was going to ask D something, a terrifying howl off in the distance made all conversation come to a halt. Mina didn't notice that she hugged Piper closer and Piper's shivers suddenly became more violent. "What was that?!"

"Werewolves." D deadpanned.

James spoke up, "They didn't sound too far away."

"I'll keep watch." Came the monotonous deep voice.

And with that, D stood up and walked away from the light of the fire. Mina and Piper followed him with their eyes, and little did the Hunter know that another pair of eyes were following him too. He disappeared into the shadows of the night.

* * *

By afternoon the next day, the party had crossed many miles as Lance set a steady pace for the wagons and other horses to follow. They had made it safely through the night, thanks to D. Now, the forest was beginning to surrender its hold, and every now and then the onlookers would be treated to the sight of a grass opening. As the afternoon sun beat down, Piper started to complain from the heat and hunger. 

"There's nothing to eat."

"Piper, I gave you some jerky this morning! What'd you do with it?" Mina asked.

"I ate it all, duh! Now I'm hungry again."

"Well stop eating everything!"

Lance interjected, "Come to think of it, I'm hungry too. Why don't I go out and see if I can shoot us s'more of those wild hens, huh? Maybe if I'm lucky I'll even catch a rabbit." He winked at Piper.

"That's a good idea! Mina and I can pick berries! I saw some a while back."

"I am not picking berries."

"James and I are low on rations too," said Kyle. "We'll see if we can shoot something as well."

And so, Lance decided that the party would split up. James and Kyle, Mina and Piper, and D with him. He left the old woman and her granddaughter behind to mind the camp and to keep an eye on the horses too. They needed some rest, so the party set out on foot.

"Come on, Gypsy Dancer!" Piper cried to Mina as she sighed. Mina grumbled in her native tongue and climbed down the wagon.

D and Lance set out up a small hill and disappeared into the forest. Close to an hour later, Lance bemoaned his luck and began to blame D. "Say, you gonna help me at all?"

D was leaning casually against a tree nearby. He said nothing.

"Well if you're just gonna stand there, at least--"

At that moment, the faintest sound of a twig snapping filled D's ears. The Hunter stood upright in his spot and turned in the direction of the sound. Lance immediately sensed the Hunter's alert stance and asked, "What is it, D? Did you hear something? I didn't hear a thing."

"Quiet. It hears us." The mysterious youth in black said without the slightest hint of fear.

Lance froze in place and shifted his eyes about his surroundings. He still couldn't hear a thing, but he eventually settled on the place the Hunter was looking. D had his left hand on his swords hilt, ready to unsheathe his blade at any moment. The man settled his hand on the holster harboring the gun at his belt. What could it be? The man wondered. A coyote? A mountain lion? As if answering his question in a split second, the beast that leapt over the rock took both Lance and D by surprise.

An enormous, black werewolf lunged out from behind a boulder, and in the moment it took Lance to reach for his gun, the beast knocked him to the ground and launched it right out of his hand. Werewolves were clearly nocturnal beast, avoiding the light of day and the heat as much as possible. It was unheard of for such a beast to attack in daylight, yet the creature before them must have been mad from hunger. It was the only thing that could explain its desperation, and yet it must have been the same beast that had been following them from the night before.

Lance reached desperately for his gun. This she-wolf must have been tipping close to eight-hundred pounds and was roughly the size of a bear. She opened her mouth and snarled viscously at the two men, rows of teeth gleaming and drool dripping from the corners of her maw. Surely she was starving. Yet even thin from starvation, she was still impressive in size and power.

"D!" Lance shouted. "If you run, she'll follow by instinct - that'll give me plenty of time to load my gun with silver bullets!" The man already held the silver bullets that he grabbed from his pocket in his hand. His hand was shaking terribly. A couple of the bullets fell to the ground.

The she-wolf seemed to have her eyes set on Lance, not at all looking at the man in black and eyeing Lance like the weaker animal as he fumbled to get up on his feet.

"She won't buy it." D spat nonchalantly. "I'll need you to move out of the way."

Lance dodged an enormous, black paw with four inch claws that swiped at his chest, barely snagging and ripping the edge of his vest.

The man let out a startled cry, "Easier said than done!"

It was all taking place so fast, all Lance could see was a blur of movement. He was trying as quickly as he could to configure himself in such a way that D could get a clean swipe, yet trying not run too far as to where the beast would give chase. He knew he wasn't as fast as a dhampir like D, and he certainly wasn't fast enough to outrun a werewolf. The swift flashes of black continued to come at him. Lance was having a hard time before he realized that despite the fact that this creature was starving, this she-beast was merely toying with him. It would only take her one strike to truly rip him in half, and he knew that moment was coming. That's what he was afraid of.

"Keep away from her head." D said calmly.

"That's kind of the part that wants to eat me!" The man shouted, and made a bold sprint with a burst of fresh energy. Too late. The werewolf showed no interest in D as he moved around to her side, almost as if his ghastly aura told her what he truly was. She anticipated the thrill of the chase, and just as Lance had made a bolt, he felt a hot, searing pain clamp down on his right foot. She snarled wildly, and just then, a sound reached Lance's ears. It was the sound of metal striking bone.

D made a clean swipe right through the beast's neck, severing her head from her body. He returned his sword to its sheath and walked over to the injured man. Lance was staring behind him in disbelief, almost forgetting about the pain in his foot. Before him, a magnificent head lay with a trail of blood flowing behind it. The eyes were unresponsive, but the she-wolf's jaws still made snapping motions, even in death. It was an eerie sight to behold to the man who had never seen a dead werewolf before.

"We should go back now."

Lance looked up at D. Surely the man before him was no ordinary dhampir. In a way, he seemed like a dark savior, with an aura of blackness surrounding him.

"I can't thank you enough for that, pal!" The man was still catching his breath from surprise. "I'm gratefully in your debt!"

And with that, D extended his hand and helped the injured man up. Lance leaned on D for support as he limped his way back to camp.

Farther down the hillside, the two men broke through the forest and into the clearing that held camp. They beheld a truly devastating sight. The wind carried the scent of blood to the dhampir's nose and both men looked around to see that the camp was completely destroyed. The two wooden wagons were torn apart, the ropes that tethered the horses were snapped in half. No doubt that some of the horses broke free from fear, yet it was clear by the amount of blood on the ground that some of them had met their doom. D's horse was the only one that remained. It was cybernetic, not exactly a meal worthy of a werewolf.

"Oh God…" Was all Lance could say surveying the destruction. "What the hell do you think happened here?"

The Hunter looked closely at some of the black fur that had snagged on a nearby lonely tree. He felt the fur twist between his fingertips. "There must have been two of them…probably the male of the pair."

Lance took off his hat and held it over his heart, shaking his head. Suddenly, as if remembering something, he ran to the wreckage that was once one of the wagons and started to toss aside some of the rubble.

"Granny?!" He shouted. "Granny?! Where the hell are you?"

As if an answer to his plea, off in the distance gunfire rang out. "James and Kyle!"

D took off in the direction of the gun shots, leaving Lance behind.

"Hey!" the man shouted, but knew it was no use. He was injured and couldn't run. Besides, he had a gun loaded with silver bullets just in case, so he was ready for trouble.

By the time D got to the scene, it was too late for James. The sight told the tale. The two brothers must have unintentionally met up with Mina and Piper some time later after their berry picking. The berries stained the ground. The woman and the girl were holding each other, huddled against a bolder in tears. Piper was sobbing miserably. They appeared relatively okay, besides scratches and bruises, but the man at their feet had met his end. No doubt trying to protect them, James suffered a terrible blow from the alpha-wolf that snapped his spine. His brother, Kyle, was on the scene and made a fuss with the big male before firing three silver bullets into its head and chest. The now dead werewolf lay sprawled on the ground, completely stained with crimson.

Kyle turned his sad eyes to the man in black as he appeared. "I heard the old woman and them screaming, and I…" He looked down sadly at his bloodstained hands. "It was too late for my brother…"

The girl and the woman ran to D from behind the rock, each taking hold of his arm. D looked down at them calmly before saying, "Go back to camp, Lance should be there. Don't worry, his gun is loaded." Piper began to protest by crying louder, but Mina bravely took the girl and both began to make their descent down the mountain.

D looked back at Kyle. "Where is Granny?"

"She…" his hand finished his sentence as he pointed to a thicket. D could already smell the blood.

"Go back to camp with the girls."

The Hunter in black pushed aside the branches to large bushes and found the tree that Granny was slumped against for support. She was twisted at a funny angle, and no doubt she was breathing her last breaths. D knelt down beside the old woman, and it took her a moment to register through her pain that he was there. She looked up into his eyes and the sight she beheld almost made her forget her pain. It was as if the eyes of this man of Darkness held a hint of compassion.

"Oh…It's you…Thank the Lord…"

Puzzled, D didn't show it. No one was ever thankful for his presence. He was usually as unwanted as Death in Spring-time. The woman's eyes began to flutter, as if any moment she would lose consciousness and be at Death's door. She spoke to D with closed eyes, "I tried my best to protect her. I must tell you before I die, I must tell someone…She's no granddaughter of mine. But I've failed her just the same, and I feel terrible for it…Please, D, I beg you…Heed an old woman's dying wish and take care of her, won't you?"

D said nothing.

"She isn't scarred or disfigured, that's all a lie. I wrapped her in bandages because I wasn't sure if the spell I had put on her had worn off or not, and I didn't want to test it by her making those men go mad." She was referring to the men in their party. "Man no longer knows what he's looking at…they see an ordinary girl but sometimes the littlest of children can see through it. I've taken her to every know-it-all I can and they can't figure her out, she's completely human and nothing more. The moment I saw her I just **had** to know who she is…that's why we were out here, on this journey…I was hoping we could eventually make our way to the Capitol…"

"Does she have any relatives I could take her to?"

The old woman let out a deep rumble that must have been a laugh. It pained her. "No one knows who she is. I found her up in some Northern village. The people there were raving she walked right out of the Northern Portal. They almost killed her - they're so superstitious. One look at her and I knew I'd love her like my own grandchild regardless. Just as you make women wild with lust with your unworldly beauty, she does the same to men, and she's just an ordinary human girl…It makes no sense. Please don't let anyone hurt her…"

The old woman looked up into D's eyes. Her vision was fading. The face before her made her weep in her final moments. He was so serene, so… "Beautiful…As much as your beauty comes from the world of Darkness I think hers must come from some other world too…maybe the world of Light…I'm not sure, it just makes no sense since she's a human being, not a dhampir like you." By now D was holding the woman's hand. She had reached out to stroke his face as if she would be allowed one final moment of happiness, but the Hunter grasped her hand instead. Now, her hand went limp and slipped out of his. "It just makes no sense…"

And then her eyes closed. Death had come.

D rested Granny's hands on her lap and stood up after a moment. Taking a few steps around the other side of the tree, he found her. A tragic figure lay on the ground face-down and lifeless. Granny had told the girl to climb up a tree during the terrifying attack, and when the werewolf had thrown the old woman against its trunk, it sent the girl tumbling right out of the its branches. Now the girl, with no voice that was able to cry for help, was left unconscious. Some of the bandages around her wrists and ankles had come loose.

A hoarse voice from D's left hand spoke up with an air of understanding, "I know you try to play good guy and respect people's dying wishes and all, but we can't take this one. We can't possibly take this kid with us. What are you going to do, D?"

D said nothing.


	2. Chapter 2 : Sympathy from the Devil

**Vampire Hunter D: The Mysterious Girl from the North**

**Chapter 2**

* * *

D returned to the wrecked camp cradling the unconscious girl in his arms. Piper immediately ran to him, eyes sore from crying and asking frantically if the injured girl was alright. He surrendered the girl into her care as the rest of the party salvaged their things from the wreckage. Kyle was visibly upset from the loss of his brother and looked up in surprise at Lance standing before him.

"Here, I managed to find your horse. Can't say the same for the others, they either ran off or got killed." And with that, he handed over the reigns to the upset man.

Upon the return of Kyle's horse, the reality of the situation began to sink in for Lance, the self-appointed leader. "We've got a problem," he addressed no one and everyone in particular. "It'll be nightfall in a few hours. The wagons are destroyed, the rations are low, we've got only two horses now, and six people." There was an edge in his voice that stabbed at something he was hinting.

The beautiful woman in red seemed to pick this up before anyone else and chirped in a morbid fashion, "I'll ride with D." The way she said it was as if she was welcoming such a tragic opportunity for a chance to get close to the gorgeous Hunter, even if it was at the cost of a human life.

"Alright," Lance chimed. "Mina goes with D. Piper, looks like you're riding on Kyle's horse then."

"I'll need to be the one riding my horse, too. I'm in no condition to walk on foot to Freemont," said Kyle.

"Well then, looks like I'm the one walking. Fine by me. D, this all right with you?"

"What about the girl…?"

All eyes turned to Piper as she asked that innocent question. She was cradling the injured girl's head with one hand and holding a cold cloth to her forehead with the other. "She needs a doctor…"

Lance caught the cold look in Mina's eyes. Her eyes were reflecting his own. "Sorry, but we just can't do that. There's not enough room, and she's a deadweight. She can't do anything to help us and we can't be wasting any food. Besides, from what Granny told me, she has no other living relatives, and with Granny gone, no one will--"

"That's cruel!" Piper shouted.

Lance remained unfazed. "Sorry, kid. Law of the Jungle. 'The strong shall live and the weak shall die.' That's how you stay alive for as long as I have out here on the Frontier."

Piper's sparkling eyes held the passion of youth as she glared into the cold gaze of the middle aged man. The kind gleam in his eyes that he held earlier was completely gone and replaced by this cruel stranger.

"Even ask the Hunter. He knows I'm right too. Isn't that right, D?" Lance stole a gaze at the youth in black who remained unresponsive. This made him smirk. "We've got a few good hours of daylight left, and we better use 'em to the best of our advantage. Now jes' set the girl down, Piper, and we'll be on our way."

"No!" Piper cried, clutching the girl. "You can't do this to your fellow man! You can't leave a poor defenseless girl to the Night and walk away thinking it helps you live longer by not burdening yourself. That doesn't make you a strong man! We've all got to help each other out by pulling each other through this, **that's** how we survive! That's how we survived the Nobility, that's what makes us _human_!"

A dark pair of eyes fashioned by the blackness of night settled upon Piper. Mina cast her gaze to the ground, struggling with the thoughts she dare not speak.

The middle-aged man snarled, "You know nothing about life, little girl. Unless you're the one that's going to carry her on your own damn back and let her eat your food, it's her or _you_."

The shock of those words overcame her and the glow of heroic defiance immediately wiped from her face. Piper froze for a moment as the harsh reality began to sink in. All eyes were on her. And slowly, very slowly…

She let go…

"'Atta, girl, Piper. Jes' set 'er down."

And at length, time saw the girl climbing up on Kyle's horse and settling herself behind him. The setting sun soaked the land in golden light and a gentle wind swayed the pale yellow grass around them. Mina was gathering up the last of her things before her ride with D as Kyle's horse began to walk away on an unmarked path through the field. Piper glanced behind her as the wind tousled her hair and looked at the frail figure lying in the golden grass by the wreckage, where the rest of the party was. The bandages around the figure's fingertips had come unraveled and Piper noted how the upturned hand, resting limp in the dying light, looked as if it was outstretched for Morning. A morning that may never come. She spun around and cast her teary eyes forward.

They all had some reason to go on. Some purpose to fulfill at their upcoming destination. Business, friends, family, reasons known only to them, but everyone knew the abandoned figure in the grass had nothing awaiting in the next town. It had been the right choice to make. It had been done this way many times before. And yet…

"She's gone!"

"What?"

Kyle turned around at the sound of Piper's words and beheld nothing but an empty field of golden grass swaying in the breeze by the wreckage. The rest of the party was there, but the figure was gone.

"Where's D?" Mina looked around.

"That son-of-a-bitch!" Lance growled. "I was counting on him to cover our asses!"

Somewhere in the shadows of the forest, a familiar, hoarse voice laughed mockingly. "I knew you'd do it."

* * *

That night, the clouds embraced to lock the sky in darkness so that not a single star gave light. It was the most dangerous time of the day, and yet he did not sleep this night. Instead, he rode through the rain and wind lashing at his face. Though D had mastered the ability to sleep by both night and day, he allowed his darker half to take a hold of him as to stay awake and use the shield of night for travel. Besides, he liked the song of the Night best.

Now that he had left behind the party, he no longer had to humor them by sleeping through the night and traveling an entire day. Most dhampirs couldn't withstand the sunlight for as long as D could, yet the more dominant half of his body still craved sleep in the daylight hours. That same part wanted to be awake at night. And so, the Hunter rode through the forest with the unconscious girl slumped against him. He had one arm draped casually around her shoulders so that she wouldn't fall off.

Raindrops seeped their way through the leaves and managed to thud against his hat as the horse galloped beneath the forest canopy. In the clearings, the wind would lash at them harder and throw D's black hair into his eyes. He mechanically reached for the scarf around his neck and drew it closer.

"So, riding by night to beat the others, eh?"

Only the dull thud of the horses hooves against the ground replied.

"You never really were one for company. Fine by me, we can get there faster anyways if we travel at our own pace instead of the humans. But what about this girl?"

D nonchalantly glanced down at the human figure.

"You're not even the least bit curious to see what this girl looks like. I wonder what that old woman meant when she said she didn't want the girl to drive those men mad."

The silence broke, "She said she placed a spell on the girl."

"I wonder what for?"

"I don't know, but if there's a chance that the spell has worn off then I don't want to find out."

The carbuncle knew what D meant. Curiosity might spell trouble for the curious if the old woman placed the bandages there for a reason, even if they didn't completely understand.

D looked down at the girl. The rain had soaked through her bandages, and though she had only scrapes and bruises, he could perceive through the wrappings the swelling on her head. She had hit her head pretty hard.

Suddenly his horse whinnied and reared up, pawing at the air. D happened to catch a flash of white in the corner of his eye as he held on tight to the reigns and maneuvered the steed to calm down. Tightening his grip around the girl, he tuned his senses to the best of his ability in the rain. The horse was still panicked, yet it couldn't smell what it had just seen, and neither could D. He hadn't even heard whatever it was coming.

Spurring the horse in the flank, he edged the beast on and became in tune with a sense that ordinary humans didn't have. The sense that told him that _something_ was out there and that _he wasn't alone_. It wasn't long before he heard the sound of a thin object breaking through the air in his direction. It lasted for only a split second, but his ears could discern the faint sound so quickly that his reaction time was more impressive.

In less than a fraction of a second, D's left hand went into action and pulled the arched sword from his back. He split the wood crafted arrow that was aimed at his chest in two with one clean swipe. This interesting display of swordsmanship showed not only in his reaction time, but by the way he cut the arrows. Not in half horizontally, but split perfectly down the middle. The two perfect halves fell to the ground shortly before two more arrows were fired in his direction.

Slicing the arrows down as easily as he had the other, the pieces that fell to the ground bizarrely became transparent and blew away like puffs of smoke.

Somewhere in the thicket a voice hissed in frustration and that was all D needed to give chase. The horse thundered off in the direction D steered it, no longer afraid of the night phantom. It cleared the thicket in a single bound and the phantom scattered.

Running _through_ the bushes was a transparent, grotesque female shape with a bow and arrow sack strapped to her back. The figure would leave wisps of smoke trailing behind her as she ran. D followed on horseback, jumping over the bushes and maneuvering around the trees that the transparent figure was running through like a ghost.

Her hair was bushy and wild, and her clothes were that belonging to a mutant. Yet the laugh that spilled from her as she ran through the forest sounded more like a twisted Nymph. Almost as if she was mockingly laughing at D for having a physical body. In this transparent form, she was outmaneuvering him. The Hunter knew it would take more than a steel sword to cut down this phantom.

He had an idea and reached into his coat before he felt his mount give out beneath him. Having just cleared over a bush, instead of being met with solid ground beneath its feet, the horses front hooves dove into a lake of mud that gave the illusion of firm ground. Even small shrubs that looked firmly rooted into the soil were barely gracing the top of the mud. It was so completely unexpected that the momentum of the situation sent the two figures on the creature's back sailing through the air. A faint cackle rang out in the distance as the figure continued to run.

D was over his surprise the moment he stopped falling. He twisted like a cat in the air and landed facing the thrashing beast. In that moment in the air, he had pulled a single wooden needle from his coat and hurled it in the direction of the voice. He had an inkling based on the creature's own attack that wood might be the weakness of a forest nymph phantom. Because he was thrown from the horse that landed in the middle of the mud, D landed closer to the bank, but was still up to his waist in mud. Taking only an instant, he threw a rope around a nearby tree. All of this took place in a matter of seconds, and yet D knew he needed to act faster because it suddenly dawned on him that this mud hole was not natural.

Grabbing the girl and placing her as close to shore as possible, D threw the open end he fastened into a lasso around the horse's neck. The cybernetic beast would not stop thrashing. Despite that it was partially robotic and had no fear of water, the biological part of the horse still held a deep and primal fear of sinking. It kicked wildly and tossed its head back. That was exactly what D didn't want. He was trying to get the beast to stop thrashing by setting an example by appearing to remain calm, when in fact, he was sinking himself. Sinking at a slower rate than the horse, he held on tightly to the rope and began to pull.

Finally, the panicked animal began to ease as it felt itself being pulled out of the deepest part by the Hunter. Still sunk up to its neck in mud, the beast had managed to stop whinnying when the mud in the deepest part of the sink hole started to ripple from below. D pulled harder and watched as the ripples parted and an enormous black tongue broke forth and wrapped itself around his horse. Pulling the horse down with incredible strength, the rope snapped. The animal thrashed its hooves wildly in one last attempt to save its life before it was pulled under completely. D had to make quick to grab the remaining rope before he found himself with no way to get out.

Pulling himself out of the bank of the mud hole and on to the shore, he used the last reserves of his strength to pull himself to his feet. Only a black bubble remained of the open air pocket his horse left behind in the mud as it was sucked down into the earth.

Breathing slightly heavier than usual, he leaned himself against the tree the remaining rope was wrapped around. He took a moment to catch his breath before picking up the girl from the mud. D placed her over his shoulder and made no attempt to wipe the mud from his clothes. Instead, he placed one foot after the other and turned back in the direction from which they came. The sky above him continued to pour and the wind howled relentlessly.

For several hours he paced himself through the forest until the early hours of morning. The wind had died down and the rain had softened. All around him was the sound of raindrops tapping against the leaves on their way down to the earth. The beautiful, tall redwoods were becoming less common and regular, deciduous trees began to take their place. Despite the rain, the nocturnal activity did not stop and occasionally a pair of eyes from a creature dubbed 'mythical' by humans of long ago watched the dhampir.

Any creature that walked unprotected at this time through the darkness was fair game to the genetically engineered and mutated creatures of the night, spawned by the Nobility. The calls, whoops, and cries of harpies and ghouls filled the air.

This world of darkness gave off a miasma of death. Night did not yet belong to humanity. And yet, the miasma of the forest did not compare to the ghastly aura emitting from the black-garbed dhampir. From his eyes came a soft glow of ruby light, revealing him for what he truly was. For this reason, nothing would go near him. Not a bat, not a beetle. The harpies above stopped shrieking once they felt it. Three-headed snakes heading in his direction slithered away. When most were scared of the creatures of the night, it was as if the creatures of the night were scared of this man alone.

D reached the top of a small hill and eyed a moss-covered rocky outcrop. He set the girl down on a bed of moss and leaned against a tree. Still standing, arms crossed, and sword ready. The shrieks and shrills of the night began to die down around him and blissful silence took over. The rain had washed most of the mud from his clothes, but his body remained tired and waterlogged. The moonless night, obstructed by clouds, gave deep comfort to those with the blood of the Nobility coursing through them. It wasn't long before Night wrapped itself around the Hunter and he closed his eyes.

A voice rang out like a faint echo in the darkness. It was pitch black. Again, he heard the cry. Dim light seeped through into the blurry vision and illuminated a grand hallway. There, a woman in a white gown ran down the beautiful corridor. Running, as fast as she could, clutching a black parcel. She was running away from something.

Her silky, raven hair streamed behind her as her bare feet pounded against the floor. She looked over her shoulder.

"_No!!_"

The woman's cheeks were already stained with tears and her eyes held utter fear and panic. Something was behind her, a black shadow, but the shadow made no effort to keep up with the woman. Instead, it floated effortlessly towards her.

The woman kept running, trying to reach the end of the hallway, crying out, "_Someone help me, please!_"

It was the kind of voice that belonged to a person fighting for her life. What terrible thing had she done to make someone so angry with her?

The shadow advanced.

"_Someone--!!_" Her voice was cut silent and an unseen force knocked her to the ground. She hit the ground with a _crack_! It broke her rib, and yet she still held the black parcel in front of her tightly, as if it were life itself. The woman on the ground huddled into a fetal position, protecting the parcel with her body.

"_Please_," the broken woman begged the shadow through sobs she could not choke back. It didn't sound as if just her rib was broken, but her very soul. "_Please, my Lord, you can't do this_!!"

Nothing. The shadow remained unmoved. It crept closer and the woman huddled tighter. She was defying his will and that wasn't allowed. Slowly, another unseen force painfully pried her fingers, one by one, apart from the parcel. The woman screamed in agony as her fingers were bent back painfully by the powerful mind of a telekinetic being. But it was going to take more than that to break her will.

A black hand reached for the parcel the woman was so unrelenting to yield. A man's hand. No. Not a man's hand. For men did not have _talons_. The woman screamed. The hand crept closer. And then the darkness was filled with the sound coming from the black parcel; a baby's wail.

D's eyes shot open. All echoes from the dream world completely faded as his eyes adjusted to the world of reality. How long had he been napping?

The Hunter uncrossed his arms and coolly surveyed his surroundings when he froze in surprise. Sitting up was the figure, staring back at him.

D didn't know what to say as the figure stared at him expectedly. Finally, he called softly, "So you're awake."

The girl nodded her head.

"How are you feeling? You hit your head pretty hard."

The figure just looked at him.

"Oh this'll be great." The voice in his left hand whispered sarcastically, in a pitch only D could hear. "Someone that talks less than you do, I didn't know such a person existe--" D closed his hand and muffled the voice.

It was true. D wasn't much for words, but he understood that in this situation he'd have to act as the voice for a person who couldn't speak for herself. It wasn't her fault.

"Do you have a name?" A soft but deep voice asked. "If so, you can write it on the ground."

But the girl slowly shook her head "no." Her shoulders slumped and she looked down at the ground. It seemed this question had pained her. Then, after a moment, she looked up at the Hunter. Her eyes were sad and questioning. He didn't know what she wanted.

"I'm sorry, but your grandmother is dead. Her dying words were that I take you to the next village." He offered as some explanation, not bothering to mention the status of the other members of the party, or that they elected to abandon her.

"We'll have too continue on foot. Can you walk?"

The figure seemed to think for a moment, and then she set her hands against the ground to balance herself as she fumbled to get up. D calmly strode over and held out a hand to help her balance herself, but when she tried to stand up straighter, her head overwhelmed her with throbbing pain. The girl doubled over, clutching her head as D caught her.

"Didn't think so."

She sat back down on the moss and brought her knees to her chest. Bringing her arms to rest on her knees, she tucked her head inside her arms. Her face was hidden, but the Hunter could tell from her heaving back she was upset. Giving her time to be, he let her grieve. Over what, was not certain. She could not say. But he imagined it was over the loss of someone who reached out to a stranger and died, being alone, and uncertainty of the future.

The rain fell softly around her and after her silent cry, she became aware of her surroundings, and the soaked wrappings that clung to her skin. The wind was not as strong as it had been earlier, but the chilly breeze against her wet skin did not help. She clutched herself tighter and she started to shiver. In her head, her freezing state only added to a list of sadness and the girl was hit with the overwhelming sense that she didn't want to go on.

"I know it may be difficult now," a voice said softly, "but things should get more clear for you once we reach the village. I'll get you there safely."

It was the only words of comfort her could give her. He didn't think himself a comfort to anyone, yet for some reason she lifted her eyes to search his. D got the feeling this was going to be difficult.

"Don't worry if you can't walk. I'll just carry you."

D carried the girl for the rest of the night piggy-back style. She held on tightly around his neck and perched her chin on his shoulder. He didn't expect the girl to remain awake for much longer, but she stayed awake through the remainder of the night. Perhaps she did not trust him, or perhaps she was not tired at all. Whatever the case, he kept walking until the scenery around them gradually changed, and the forest broke into a marsh. It must have been created overnight from the storm.

D trekked through the mud. The sky above them was starting to surrender to a lighter glow amidst an overcast sky. The girl's shivers began to cease over time as the warmth from D's body spread. In due time, her arms began to go limp from around his neck and her cheek found its way to his shoulder. D held on to her slipping arms to keep her from falling.

She had finally managed to fall asleep. How anyone could do so in his presence remained unknown to him.

The marsh lay open before him. The weight of the girl on his back, the mud clinging to his boots, the heavy waterlogged clothes, none of these things slowed him down. And yet, something was haunting in his gaze.

Even without a horse, D knew he would make it to the village before the human party. That was just the way of dhampirs.

In time, a road presented itself through the marsh and D's muddy boots sought the firm ground. On the road up ahead, a post marked in the ground held a sign with painted letters; "Village of Freemont. 30 Miles."


	3. Chapter 3 : Village of Freemont

**Author Note** : I happily bought the new manga and the latest novel a couple of days ago, and that really helped me get back into the groove of writing. Let me know what you think.

**Vampire Hunter D : The Mysterious Girl from the North**

**Chapter 3 **

* * *

Freemont was a typical run-of-the-mill village that happened to be in worse shape than most. With no large population or spectacular achievements, one was lucky to find it on most Frontier maps. With the sun looming overhead, D reached the village with plenty of daylight to spare. One could hardly call it a village, it seemed like the remains of an old coal mining community with some fairly newer building. There were no paved roads here, no grand carriages attached to ebony horses darting through the streets. Instead, a strip of well trodden earth served as the main road with wooden buildings on either side. Badly bleached by the sun with boards creaking under the wind from rot.

Looming in the distance was the village mill that no longer seemed to be working, and beyond that the gentle foothills that hinted of mighty towering peeks further north. Forest was all around them, yet only some of the buildings showed signs of repair. The village was almost completely quiet, save for the sound of the wind. There were no signs here that read "Saloon" or "Sherriff's Hall," so D made an educated guess by the building that showed the most signs of repair where he could get some information.

Stepping onto the wooden deck without making a sound, D walked into a store that read "General Grocery and Hardware" in the window. Before him an older man in a blue vest was turned with his back toward him, fumbling with tools in a display case. Turning, he said, "Hello there. Good morning, what can I do for you today?"

"Where can I find a doctor?"

"Eh?" The older man adjusted his bifocals and then let out a small gasp of surprise as the tall dhampir, draped in a black that seemed to swallow light, came into focus. The man caught sight of the contrasting white bandages of the arms wrapped around the foreboding man's neck and the head cradled in wrappings against his shoulder.

"I'm sorry to say, but Doctor Lennings is out of town today. He was called away yesterday on a family emergency. 'Won't be back into town 'til later on this week. Why, is that fellow on 'yer back hurt real bad?"

"You're village only has one doctor?"

"'Fraid so. Only one sheriff too. If you need a doctor that bad, the next closest village to here is West Haven. The Inn a few buildings down should have a map of that area and a book with some listings. I also have a small collection of pharmaceuticals."

Not bothering to ask about the pharmaceuticals, D turned to leave and walked out the door, heading several buildings down. After he left, the old man's wife came out of lurking.

"I didn't like the look of him one bit."

"Really?" He looked at her. "I thought he was kinda handsome."

Several buildings down, D found the white-washed building that could only pass for the village Inn. He made his way into the lobby and was met with confused stares from two pairs of eyes. The woman's face was completely flushed eyeing the man who's pale skin, whiter than the fairest maiden on a moonlit night, hinted of another world. A world of Darkness. But the man, however, did not take his eyes off the bandage-garbed girl. A frown scowled his face.

"Umm, we don't rent out rooms to--"

"The room is for this person since your doctor is out of town," came a deep voice, purposefully not referring to the person on his back as a _her_. "I'll be needing a map of this region and the listing to Lilabette Fortuna's lodgings."

"Are you the Hunter ol' Lulu hired?" The receptionist asked with a bit of excitement.

Not responding, D followed the man after a muffled, "Right this way, sir."

The man opened a door and held it open for the dhampir, but showed no signs of giving over the key. D walked inside and placed the girl on the bed. The man walked inside the room too as if to monitor his actions. If D was greatly annoyed by this, he didn't show it. Trust wasn't given freely in this world, especially to anyone with the blood of the Nobility in their veins.

After that, D locked the door, and the curiosity for the bandaged person on the man's face began to fade away. Immediately upon receiving a map and the info he requested, he left like a shadow. He'd been there maybe a total of ten minutes.

Tucked in the corner of the village was a two story building just as shabby as all the other houses. Before the Hunter even entered this house, the smell of incense caught him. A sign in the window held a certain symbol meaning the person inside was a fortune teller and belonged to an ancient mystical faith. Before D could even knock on the door, a raspy voice beckoned, "Come inside."

Wondering how the woman knew he was there since he hadn't made a sound, he stepped inside. The inside was dark, with light only seeping through the slivers of the blinds. Wisps of smoke rising from incense gave an eerie feel. An old woman, even older than the man D had met earlier, sat at a wooden table sipping tea.

" 'D' I presume?"

D gave a nod.

"Have a seat, won't you?" Her attempt at being polite sounded far from comforting with her harsh voice. D remained standing.

"Hmph. Typical 'Never trust a stranger' attitude of hunters. I'm Lilabette Fortuna, but most folks 'round here call me 'Old Lulu.' Care for a cup of tea?"

No response. The old crone ended up laughing. "I thought not. Mayhaps you don't trust Gypsies or little old ladies. Have it your way. I bet you're wondering how I knew you were there, eh? I have the Gift. That's what I do, I help folks when I can by reading their fortunes. All for a small price, of course. Have you ever had your fortune told?"

"What business do you have with me?"

The woman frowned and tightened the deep red shawl around her shoulders. Her deep set eyes, hidden beneath sagging folds of skin, wrinkled more with worry. "The cards never lie." She said in a serious tone. "They told me to send for you."

A hoarse voice only D could hear piped up. "Is this old witch for real?"

D muffled it out and turned. "If you have no real business with me I'll be leaving now." He headed for the door.

"Wait!"

But he didn't. D reached for the handle. "You have the dreams too, don't you."

That stilled his hand.

"You get them too, the nightmares. They can be so terrible sometimes that they linger in your mind for days, even when you're wide awake."

This held the Hunter captivated.

"Now won't you have a seat?"

* * *

Time later saw the Hunter seated in a chair at the table across from Old Lulu. He even had a cup of tea in front of him, though if he was humoring Lulu was anybody's guess. The sun was blaring outside, but the old house with its dim interior was a sort of comfort for the dhampir. He casually eyed the pictures littered all over the walls and fireplace mantle of what seemed to be Lulu in her golden days and relatives long passed, or far away.

"You see, there's a bit of a skeleton in Freemont's closet. Why do you think our town is in such a bad condition? We're a quiet village in the middle of no where. I was born and raised here, just like my parents. When I was a little girl, I didn't get the nightmares. And then as years passed, I started getting them, as did other people in the village. Soon, everyone got them. These nightmares plagued us almost every night. It got so bad they stopped coal mining production and the train didn't come here anymore. The railroads are abandoned now. This broke our village, as coal mining was the main source of income, and many folks moved away. Even travelers coming into town can feel them. Just being near this place…" She shivered.

D watched her silently. "Anyway, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. Folks around here eventually got use to it, but the nightmares aren't as bad as before. They don't interfere with work production like they did for the miners. Those dreams got so terrible for some folks that grown men wouldn't want to leave their houses for days out of fear. Naturally, as you can imagine, we pulled together an investigation as to what source could be that was causing all this corruption for one tiny town. We sent for help from the Capital for special technology, but they rejected or plea. Saying it wasn't dire enough and that we had no documented proof. So a group of men searched the village for some clues. Three grown men went into the mine shafts and never came back out."

"So the bodies were never retrieved?"

"Correct." She nodded. And then her tone lightened. "And some suppose it could have been a natural disaster… Sometimes there are cave-ins deep down there, but not everyone is convinced. No one felt any tremors and their safety lines were simply snapped at only a few hundred feet, with non of the usual signs of a cave-in or debris when the others investigated. So you can imagine I felt it was something more than any natural causes. That's when another tragedy struck. Two farmers on the edge of town were found dead and completely drained of blood. Yet we couldn't find a single fang mark! Imagine that. Right when we want to find a definite cause, it throws that at us. So we don't know what we're up against.

"But that was a few years ago. The situation was kept quiet, with no real evidence for us to receive help, but enough rumors to scare most people away. There were never any other bodies after that, and the nightmares eventually died down for most people, to a livable tolerance. But not for me. Mine got worse."

"So why did you stay here?"

She scoffed. "This is my home! My grandfather built this house. I'm far too loyal to my blood to abandon this house and village. The ones that stayed behind are the thick-skinned ones! The ones with roots here. But the last couple years we've had the joy of welcoming new-comers because the nightmares have been tolerable and they don't come nightly. At least, not for most folks."

"Is there more than the nightmares?"

Old Lulu nodded. "About a year ago we started getting reports of these strange Night Phantoms. I can't seem to find anything about them in any of my books. On top of that, within a year some of my most important and knowledgeable books have gone missing. As has some of my most magical items. Now, I'm not sure if my missing property is related to any of this, but someone sure as hell wants something with my things."

She took a sip of her tea. "I can't prove if any of this is related to a Noble, but in honesty that's my best guess. Most folks won't think so, but I think it's merely a clever one trying to throw our village off course. I know you're a top grade Hunter that normally deals strictly with Vampires, but the cards told me to summon you…"

Old Lulu looked up here to catch the glimpse in D's eyes. "I'd also heard that in your past you've dealt with some major cases not dealing directly with Vampires, but some of the terrible beasts they've created. So I was hoping that you'd accept and try to help out our little village. I'd be willing to dip into my retirement savings to pay you nicely for your troubles."

"You could have hired a lesser Hunter if you wanted to retire comfortably."

The old crone's eyes bugged out of her head, and then she tossed her head back to laugh an almost mad cackle. "I knew you'd help us! I'm glad to hear that. You're right though. I could have hired anyone. But the cards picked you, and the cards are never wrong. That could only mean one thing - and I hope you're a man of destiny." She smiled wide, revealing years of worn and yellow teeth.

"I'll be going now. In the meantime, you should make a list of the titles of the books that went missing." And before Old Lulu could shower him with parting words, he was out the door.

After a glance at his map, D was walking up a well-shaded hill with the village of Freemont at his back.

"You're going to the mine right now?" Left Hand asked somewhat surprised.

"The only next step."

A chuckle broke through the air. "Hard-ass."

D reached the entrance of the mine at a pace twice as fast as any human. It was a large opening, but mostly hidden behind bushes and small pines reclaiming the area man left neglected. Because it had been abandoned completely after the investigators never returned, the opening to the shaft was boarded up and closed off. With one clean swipe, his sword cut through the chains and sliced the thick boards in half. Dust fell to the ground at his boots and he stepped into the opening of the mine, leaving the world of light behind.

With no flashlight or torch to guide him, D followed the tracks along the floor and descended deeper down into the shaft. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Some abandoned tools littered the floor every once in a while. The walls looked heavily picked. The electric lights mounted to the rock walls looked busted, but no signs of struggle or death.

The small, reflective eyes of a rat would look at D from time to time, but nothing unusual. The Hunter continued his pace along the tracks, descending deeper until all traces of light were swallowed.

Soon the only sound echoing off the walls was the sound of his footfalls. The Hunter could see well in darkness, but like a feline, utter pitch black rendered him blind. He took advantage of the tranquil blue light given off by the pendant wrapped around his neck. It rendered the Nobilities technology as useless against him in an attack, yet in this case, it stood in place of a flashlight. As he continued further, nothing seemed unusual.

"Can you sense anything?" D asked the symbiont at his side.

"Nothing. And judging from your question, you can't either. I don't expect us to find any remains down here. Whatever it was that killed those men could be long gone by now."

"I know."

The path took him down various twists and turns, hundreds of feet below ground. About a half hour into his trek, D walked passed a cavern with a gentle draft that lightly tossed strands of his hair across his lips. He eyed it suspiciously.

Turning heel, he stepped off the main pathway and into the cavern. He walked a little further until he felt the draft no more. Finding this odd, the dhampir glanced behind himself as if this would give him an answer to where the draft came from, and why it had stopped. And then he caught something in the corner of his eye. D froze, but couldn't make out a shape against the rock-wall illuminated by pale blue light. Scrutinizing the wall more intensely, he noticed smaller tunnels retreating down into the Earth like veins with holes in them. One of them even looked freshly dug. The impressive part was the size of the holes, they were big enough to fit a small elephant through. Taking a few steps closer, the Hunter took it upon himself to inspect the recently dug hole. The smell of fresh dirt was pungent in the air and it seemed to have been formed only a few hours ago. Was this the work of miners?

Something wasn't right. D ran his bare fingers along the jagged rocks and stopped along the scrapings around the hole. No, it wasn't the work of pick axes, these were claw marks.

"D, look out!"

Before a mental image of what it could be had formed in D's mind, a massive paw - No, a single claw attached to a forearm - took a deadly swipe at him. Reacting with lightning speed, the Hunter turned and brought his sword down like an arc, slicing straight through flesh and bone. The monster let out a screech. A screech so loud it vibrated in his head at decibels that would make an ordinary man's head split apart. Now D had no doubt what it was. A Crypt Walker.

Relying upon his amazing nocturnal vision to compensate for his temporary loss of hearing from the intense screech, D watched as the entire beast now crawled out of the darkness. Crypt Walkers had no eyes. Instead, a mass of grizzly, auburn hair covered its face, all but its mouth. It had a single, enormous sharp digit at the end of its arm, perfect for digging and disemboweling. Nicknamed Crypt Walkers because they would often tunnel underneath the labyrinths of grave yards, sometimes they would even play scavengers to the Dearly Departed. A terrifying force to recon with, it was on the rare occasional that they opened their mouths to screech that tombstones would crack and people close by would be instantly killed.

Crawling into the opening, yet unable to support itself on its missing arm, the Crypt Walker let out another screech worse than a banshee. If it wasn't enough to kill D like most people, he was certainly feeling an intense head ache. The beast charged at D on its remaining limbs.

Mustering all his concentration against an injured beast turned berserk, the Hunter leapt into the air and planted himself on the creature's back faster than the eyes could follow. He held his sword poised over its head and right before it could deliver another piercing roar, he rendered it silent. The nub that looked like a head covered in hair and rows of teeth fell to the ground with a **thud**. The only smell now that masked the dirt was the scent of blood.

He felt the body of the beast give out beneath his feet at the loss of its head and stepped off. D started to walk back the way he came to return to the main pathway when he felt a tremor rise from deep within the Earth. At first, D thought it could be the pounding of his own head from the intense head ache he felt, but as sand and debris began to fall down in front of him a few yards ahead on the main pathway, he began to think twice. In a split second, boulders the size of cars came crashing down from above as the ceiling collapsed. As the shaft around him begin to cave in, D had only one thought: _**Run**_.

The final roar from the Crypt Walker had made the mine shaft come tumbling down. Running at a speed that would make an Olympic Sprinter impressed, D felt every tremor from the collapse in his body and the pounding of his head with every step. Once in a while a jagged rock would snag and tear his long coat, but not enough to slow him down. After a few moments, he outpaced the fall of the rocks and boulders until it completely ceased all together. The Earth would still tremble occasionally but the dust had yet to settle. D had sought shelter against a small indent in the wall and covered his nose and eyes with his coat from the debris. Even for a dhampir, that scare had left him out of breath. After collecting himself for a moment, he stood up and continued walking in the only option he had.

"D…? You okay?"

No response, but the Carbuncle didn't get the impression D was ignoring him. It would take a little longer before his hearing would return to him, that much Left Hand guessed. As the Hunter kept walking, tunneling its way through a wall now more easy to crumble due to the collapse, the claws of yet another Crypt Walker were beginning to emerge. Before even Left Hand could bring the sound of the tunneling beasts to D's attention, D whirled around and grabbed a wooden needle from his coat. Just as the beast poked its head through in response to the other's dying call, he hurled the needle straight into its yawning mouth before it could let out another screech. It was a quick and silent death, the needle piercing through the back of its soft palette and straight into its brain with great precision.

"Even if you can't hear, you never cease to amaze me," Left Hand chuckled. "That's probably the very reason _he let you live_."

The Carbuncle waited for the usual squeeze of the hand to silence him, but nothing happened. Knowing this was usually a touchy subject with the stoic Hunter, the left hand decided to take advantage of the situation. "Fine, I'll just take this moment to tell you what I really think - your clothes are filthy, that shirt is way too tight on you, and you need a hair cut."

"I can hear you."

"Oh, already?"

"Yep." _Squeeze_.

Time passed, and D looked earnestly for an opening. Or at least the sensation of some type of draft that might hint of an opening to the outside world. A deeper realization was beginning to sink in, one that meant the only pathway to the outside world had been forever closed, and that this coal mine might be their grave. Pushing that thought to the back of his head, D was beginning to regain his hearing. Something that would normally take a dhampir several more hours.

Maybe feeling somewhat defeated, or maybe just wanting to get a little rest, the dhampir stopped walking and sat with his back against a sooty wall. His head still ached terribly and every step he took was making it work. The Hunter closed his eyes and took a few moments to recuperate. Left Hand began to munch at the dirt around him. "You'll need a little Earth element to help," was all it said.

Not objecting, D tried to allow himself a little rest.

"Those Crypt Walkers…do you think there'll be any more of them? I wonder if maybe one of them got a hold of those investigators. But they're naturally cave dwellers. Those miners were practically asking for it by digging a man-made tunnel. I'm surprised they didn't have Crypt Walker problems sooner. Still, it doesn't explain for all the other stuff. D, what do you think?…D?"

D's eyes were trained straight in front of him. A moment before he had felt something…a sensation that had stirred something inside of him. A sort of unsettling feeling he could not place, and yet, '_When you stare into the abyss the abyss stares back_.' He was surprised Left Hand couldn't feel it or he would have mentioned it, but then D figured out why. Staring back at D was a pair of dimly lit yellow eyes. Not any glowing eyes that bounced off the retinas of any biological creature, but a sleeping mecha. He was somewhat surprised something so out of place and rather hidden lay before him.

As D slowly started to rise, so did the mecha. When finally standing perfectly straight, so did the machine, equally distributed on legs of four. A synthesized voice broke through the heavy air. "You've done battle with the Crypt Walkers, but I can not allow you to go any further."

The sound of electric chargers gathering neurons to fire became louder and higher pitched. A blast of hot energy soared straight at the Hunter. He somersaulted out of the way as the blast soared past him and hit the wall, oddly searing the edges instead of igniting flames.

The pitch of the gathering neurons wailed again, but this time, instead of a single blast, the cannon split into three sections. Producing three perfectly magnified lasers that split forth and whirled in every direction instead of spitting forth a perfectly straight beam.

Never had robotics held weapons that had harnessed the power of bending laser beams.

Preparing himself for an attack the way in which physics usually allowed a laser beam to shoot: straight, it caught D completely by surprised and left him rather unexpected. Before he knew it, hot blood was gushing from his side where a fragment of one of the bending beams had gored him.

"Damn! What the hell is this?!" Left Hand cried.

Clutching his side and gritting his teeth, D refused to get up off the ground. Experience and a hunch had told him that attacking from bellow was to his advantage. And yet something had left him perplexed. Only the mind of the Nobility could concoct such a weapon through advanced technology mankind could only dream of. And yet his pendant, which was suppose to render any mechanized weapon created by the Nobility powerless, did not seem to have any affect on this mecha at all. This was the first time D had ever encountered this problem. He was depending on the pendant to help him be able to maneuver into an angle to slice the mecha monster from the belly up. Now that D could no longer count on that option, he relied on something much more. Something deeper within him. A part of himself he had yet to come to terms with.

Holding his left hand to his bleeding side, he triggered his own body into drinking his own blood to ignite within him what he would never take from a human being. The classic blood light filled his eyes - the trademark eyes of the Children of the Night: the Vampires.

A surge of power coursed through his veins, a feeling he both savored and denied. This was the power of the Nobility. The feeling as if you are both invincible and timeless. And from the corners of his mouth poked an impressive pair of fangs. No longer feeling as if the darkness was a hindrance but a blessing, D charged the mecha beast, leaping into the air faster than its sensors could detect and raising his sword above his head. The sound of steel hitting steel rang out and the machine veered noisily to one side as one of its limbs collapsed to the ground. It continued to writhe like a spider's leg on the ground as sparks flew everywhere.

D half expected another blast from the astonishing laser cannon, yet instead the machine's front analyzers came to life, clicking and beeping. Not sure if the machine was trying to calculate the loss of its limb or how to activate the counter balance for its weapons, he charged the monster once more. Sprinting rapidly and then diving onto his back, he prepared himself to make a clean swipe straight up into the underside of the machine. And just before he was fixed to ram his blade with all his might, a white light filled the entire cavern.

It was the kind of light that made his fingers go stiff, drained him of his physical strength and made him want to wretch. It was the light that belonged to Timeless Incense. The fact that this machine had analyzed through D's blood that D was a dhampir, and then produced the proper attack of elements consisting of Timeless Incense was the likes of a machine not even known before to the Nobility. It bordered on impossible. And yet it used the very thing that would render anyone with Vampire's blood powerless.

The dhampir felt the weight of the machine crush against him as he lay on his back. The sickening sound of his ribs cracking filled his ears. He knew if he didn't stand now, no matter how much pain he was in, no matter how bad the light of the candle burned his eyes and the inside of his nose, this machine would kill him. Monsters and Vampires were one thing, but machines and robots were another. Mustering the last reserves of his strength, the dhampir forced himself to leap out from underneath the mecha monster just as it had decided to deliver its deadly crush. Missing the part that would kill him, the back of its double jointed leg had managed to catch D's head instead. He didn't know what happened after that, everything went black.

When he finally came around, an eerie sight greeted his vision. The sky. A pitch black sky filled with countless stars. It had been several hours since he went into that mine, and yet how he came to be laying outside and not buried dead hundreds of feet below ground was a deep mystery to him. He didn't even have the strength to summon Left Hand to ask, but a part of him knew Left Hand didn't have the answer either. His thoughts were not clear or coherent, they were single minded focused on one thing.

When he managed to finally stand up, his lips remained firmly pressed and showed not a grimace of pain. His eyes didn't wince once as he felt the pain in his ribs sear through his body as he walked down the hill. D numbly clutched his gored side with his hand and put one foot in front of the other. He just didn't want to give in to his body, not out here in the unprotected night of the Frontier. The wounds that usually healed rapidly were not doing such a fine job of repairing themselves. The blood from his side was starting to stream down his leg, and a black fuzziness was starting to cloud his vision as he fought the urge to wretch. D knew what a concussion felt like. What exactly had this machine done to him?

Luckily when he reached the village no one was out this late as most of the places were locked and most inhabitants sleeping. Not a brace soul littered the street. Hell bent, D fought as hard as he could a mental battle with his body not to fail him until he was at least within the safety of four walls. A Hunter couldn't allow himself to be so openly vulnerable.

He slowly ascended the wooden steps to the porch of the Inn where he left the human girl. Having enough sense not to go trudging through the lobby, he made a discreet entrance through the backdoor connecting the room to the patio. With barely enough strength to slice the locked handle, it gave him no trouble and D stepped inside the room. Only a single lamp was lit inside with no sign of the girl anywhere.

Unable to make it even to a chair, D collapsed against the hard wooden floor. In the midst of his head pounding he thought he heard the sound of a shower running before he lost consciousness.


	4. Chapter 4 : Mysterious Girl

**Vampire Hunter D : The Mysterious Girl from the North**

**Chapter 4**

One can never truly escape the dark cobwebs that shadow the corners of the mind. Repress them, or even try to forget them, they always return when it is time to dream. That time when the waking mind and the unconscious mind become one in an exchange of data fleeting through a highway of neurons and electrons. Taking shapes of objects, people or places in time. And while the dreams may be transmitting from our own mind, it is that part of our mind we have the least control over…_What_ we dream.

For sometimes the things that are shown to us are the things we don't wish to see.

And for him…The symbols took on shapes. The emotions wore faces. And the era from long ago clawed its way back into the present. For him, it was a symbol a tragic symbol of beauty, of love, and of a broken heart.

She stood before him. That shadow. That demon. He wore the face of an angel, a perfect Fallen Angel. Was she pitting her will against his? Is that why the demon was smirking? Is that why she was shaking?

"_I'm leaving_." She said defiantly, and with all the dignity she could muster.

The darkness hung thick in the air. The metallic smell of blood so pungent one could swallow it and taste it.

A voice replied, calm and regal, yet full of venom. "_That won't be allowed_."

"_You can't stop me this time. What you're doing isn't right. I've invoked the help of something you and your blood-sucking __**monsters**__ will be powerless against_…"

"_You dare impugn on my work_?" The shadow asked calmly, rising as he spoke. He began to pace slowly The hem of his velvet, black cloak trailing behind his boots. "_What I'm doing is for the good of the future. For both humanity and Nobility alike. You were aware of that the moment you consented. You wanted to help people. Well, I do too._"

"_I didn't know you were going to take it this far! I didn't consent to you forcing me to have children and then_…" the tears she didn't want to escape flowed, "_Taking them away from me_…"

"_It was necessary. You sound as if you are the only person that suffers - the only person who has ever sacrificed_," he said with a hint of sadness, almost as if he could be referring to himself. "_There must always be a price to pay for the greater good. Any wise man can tell you that. I am not so cruel if I am thinking of the wellbeing of future people. They will praise me, and it wouldn't have been possible without you. In your blood lies a valuable key, you bore me my one success. I let you keep him, didn't I? Even after you tried to take him away from me. Surely I have been good to him. I've honored him by naming him after myself_."

"_No, I won't stand to listen to your lies anymore!" she hissed. "You're just trying to find a cure for your leeches so your reign of Darkness can continue on forever! I won't consent to that, I can't allow you to let other people suffer_!"

"_And if you __**leave**__ here there will be a suffering like never before. I'll be forced to search the globe for a human woman with important genes like yours simply so they can bare me my successes. Would you really want to inflict that suffering upon thousands of women? Maybe even millions? Surely your best option would be to stay here and help me_."

"_Not even if you manipulate me into feeling guilty will I stay here. I know what you're up to, and I won't allow it to go on any further. Nothing you say will make me regret my choice. I'm taking them and I'm leaving. As a mother, I won't stand to watch them inherit a throne of evil and darkness_."

"_Them_…?"

Her brown eyes were crying, but firm as she looked straight at him. "_The children you took away from me. I'm taking them to some place safe where they can know the love of their mother, not this evil place. Where are they? Where are you keeping them_?"

The shadow this time did not reply. A long silence hung in the black air as the dark figure slowly returned to where he was sitting and sunk himself into the chair. "_Is that what this is about_…?" His voice heavy with contemplation and something deeper.

"_Where are you hiding them? I want to know the truth_." She stood defiant.

"_You want to know the truth_?"

The darkness began to lose its shape. The void was becoming so clear now… now that the dream was starting to relinquish its hold.

"_You want to know the truth_?" The voice echoed once more. It was fading this time, almost like it was getting further and further away…

The dark figure stood face to face with the woman. Eyes as black as midnight that could swallow the sun looked into her broken brown eyes. Into her broken soul. And before he could answer, the figures melted away. He could no longer see them, but he could feel them there. He heard only this reply:

"_They were __**inadequate**_."

D's eyes shot open as fists pounded against glass and a hoard of angry voices from outside permeated through the walls. A pillow was propped underneath his head and some of his wounds crudely tied to bound the bleeding, but the girl was no where in sight.

Wincing slightly as he stood up, the pain from his cracked ribs seared through him now that the adrenaline in his body had worn out. He balanced himself on his hands and stood up, looking around the room. There were droplets of blood on the floor, but it was his own blood.

It was the early hours of the morning. Word that a dhampir was in town traveled through the town's makeshift bar. Some curious drunk ventured over to the Inn when he heard about the person the dhampir put up for the night. However, instead of getting to annoy that person about a "real dhampir" in a drunken stupor, he saw the blood on the porch and rushed back to the bar with his new revelation: "He bit someone!!"

Soon the humans took it upon themselves to form a mob with the idea of safety in numbers and to purge their village of the "demonic force". It was the same tale over and over since the times of antiquity. Overthrowing the monster, killing the beast. If the spirit of humanity in great numbers is what empowered them through the reign of the Nobility, then overthrowing one person with Noble blood in his veins surely shouldn't be so difficult. He was just one person, after all.

And yet when the dhampir stood before them on the porch, tall and hinting of power from another world, no one dared make a move. One look at the creature the men had only heard legends about was enough to scare the fight out of them. Deep within their minds, though they had power in numbers, a carnal fear overtook them that said even they would not be enough for this dhampir.

"What do you want?" A deep voice asked carried by the wind. Though D showed not a hint of rage his aura was overpowering. It seemed to whisper 'Come any closer and I'll tear you apart.'

"We want you leave town! We don't care who hired you, we don't want any Vampires here!" The people in unison with torches in hand echoed in agreement.

D wasn't even going to protest that he wasn't even a Vampire. Or convince the townspeople he could help them. Or even that he was the best hunter the world had ever known. No. He simply stepped off the porch and began to walk away without a word. The mass of people parted before him as if he was a contagious disease. No thought whatsoever about the injured person he was leaving behind, D didn't even glance behind him. He just walked straight ahead with no intentions of looking back, just as he always did when Man rebelled. If the humans would ever come to be sorry later for whatever doom befell them for running their only hope out of town, D resolved a long time ago he simply wouldn't care.

And then an odd change came over the crowd. The angry hissing stopped, and one by one the people turned their attention. It was something behind him. Finding this strange, D stole a glance at a nearby couple as he was leaving.

Their eyes…They held the same awe entranced and flustered look that people wore when they looked at…

Standing on the porch where D had earlier was the human girl devoid of bandages. Her hair, now unbound and slightly damp, cascaded across her shoulder on one side in a mass of waves. It reached down to her waist and glowed in a most unnatural way under the moonlight. For her hair was so blonde it was as white as the moonlight itself. A color more common for small children or the elderly, not someone who looked barely passed her mid teens. Yet the body silhouetted by the single sheet wrapped around her shivering frame held the unmistakable curves of a young woman. Her face, however, held a rather childlike quality, almost doll-like, with full lips slightly parted. She was looking at him with sad imploring eyes. The man that had rescued her, the man that had left her. Unnerving to look straight at, yet haunting to look away from, her eyes were as bright as the mid-day sky. She was altogether beautiful, yet eerie.

The girl stepped down from the porch and clasped her coverings like a cloak as she followed pursuit behind D. He was the only person she knew.

"Wait!" one man called after him. "Is-is she with you…? Because if she is…you can stay here. As long as she does."

And then more voices, both male and female alike rang out;

"It must not be her blood, she's not bitten!"

"What if it was someone else's blood?"

"Look! He's injured!"

"It must be his blood, then."

"Is she albino?"

"That's the strangest girl I've ever seen."

"Where does she come from?"

"You idiots!" Came the angry voice with an unmistakable rasp like an old woman. The old woman was Lulu. "I hired him! He's the best hunter that money can buy and I sent for him personally," she sneered. "I'm paying for this out of my own pocket after we were denied help from the Capitol! Do you really want to run him out of town when he could solve the problem and figure out the reason for why we all suffer like this?"

She looked into the eyes of the people near her, daring them to show just one hint of defiance. She was met with downcast pairs of eyes. "I thought not. You all trust in my Craft, now you'll have to trust in my judgment. Now leave him alone and don't get in the way of his job." The anger seethed through her worn teeth.

Even those who held their superstitions and doubts about having a dhampir hunter in town kept their opinions to themselves, or at least behind closed doors. For the old, Gypsy fortune teller at the edge of town was a respected elder member of the community. Even if her reasoning for gambling her retirement money on a top class hunter her cards told her to hire seemed illogical, no one would argue with her intentions for summoning help to their forgotten and run down village. If she was willing to fund him out of her own pocket to help them, then perhaps the community owed her that much more respect. And so, slowly the ends of the crowd began to scatter until the mob dispersed.

"Come on." She said to D, anger still present in her voice. "I'll put you up." She turned to leave and walked away with a bit of a hobble. D followed silently and the girl, two meters back, took a step too. D stopped.

"What is it?" Old Lulu asked in annoyance over her shoulder.

"It would seem I still have a dying favor to pay." D recalled the old woman whom the party out on the Frontier called Granny, and her dying wish for D to take care of the mysterious girl she loved for a short time as a granddaughter. He had done his part. He had delivered her to the closest town and made sure no harm had come to her. There was nothing to bind her to him now, which was why he could walk away from her and not look back. But perhaps lurking in his eyes was a bit of remorse for having done so.

Lulu cut him short. "I hired you and you alone. I didn't plan on this and company from out of town will be staying with me tomorrow." When D didn't move or protest her words she sighed. "Fine. If it's a dying favor you owe," she barked.

When they reached the old woman's two story house, Lulu immediately locked the door and instructed the girl to go upstairs and find something decent to wear from a spare closet. No sooner had the girl disappeared from sight did the old woman reel around and shout, "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

She looked right at D as she went to draw the curtains and turn on another light.

"Just what are you trying to pull? I'm an old woman trying to get a decent nights rest and I hear the neighbors pounding on my door at some odd hour of the morning, ranting and raving saying 'a Noble's bitten someone,' and others said they felt tremors like a bomb exploded hours earlier. They've got their torch lights and daggers with them and I follow them, wondering what the hell this is all about and I see it's you that's caused all this trouble." She raved on.

"Half the village is scared to death and I had to be the one to burn out the flames of Hell in their eyes. On top of this, you've got blood on you, and a busted lip like a bat crawled out of Hell. What are decent folk suppose to make of you? They half about killed you! They thought you made a victim of someone, how could you be that careless?"

She half expected D to walk right out of her house and never come back. She would have even understood if he answered back, some sort of reaction, but he stood perfectly still. She was downright confused and slightly amazed. And then slowly, the pieces began to connect together like a puzzle in her mind. "Oh my Lord… You went into the mine, didn't you..."

"Yep."

Lulu, with a look of pure amazement on her face and mouth agape, slowly sunk into a seat. "I…I had no idea. I'm so sorry for shouting at you like that, I just wouldn't have thought in a million years you would have went into the mine. I mean, it's all boarded up…What did you find? What happened?" She asked with earnest and great interest, almost on the edge of her seat.

"Nothing out of the usual, at first. Until I encountered a Crypt Walker."

"In this part of the Frontier?!"

"My hearing is regained but it would seem there was a nest down here."

Lulu put her hand to her mouth in amazement. "That could explain the missing people that went into the mine. Maybe they got eaten, but without their remains we may never know for sure. But to my knowledge, Crypt Walkers have no supernatural powers. Even if they are engineered by the Nobility. And what's plaguing us like those Night Phantoms isn't mere flesh and blood. It can't be." She took in his battered form. "Crypt Walkers couldn't have done all that to you…What else happened?

D contemplated answering for a moment. "It would seem that perhaps your hunch that the Nobility might be involved could be correct."

Her eyes went wide.

"Before the cave in, deep in the tunnels of that mine I encountered a machine."

"A machine!?"

D nodded. "I'm positive it was created by the Nobility, but who's using it for sure I can't say. Or for what purpose. My best guess is that it's guarding something."

The old woman's eyes were searching his. Any bit of information. Any.

"That's all I have." D said.

"So a machine created by the Nobility is probably guarding something secret deep within the mine. Interesting. Could the machine be what's giving us the nightmares?"

"No. A machine alone couldn't do that…" On his last note, D began to chew on some of the details in his head and held a lost look in his eyes. Lulu watched him intently.

"What is it, D?"

"The technology the Nobility created I've encountered numerous times." The pendant at his chest glowed in the lamp light. "But technology like this I have yet to understand. It just may be that I may not be able to help you."

D looked into Lulu's eyes to make sure she grasped the full meaning behind his words. It was a harsh revelation. Staring at him, it was clear his body had paid the price for encountering the machine deep within the mine.

"But…"

"But, what?" Lulu asked.

"A machine alone could not have done what it did, or do what is happening to your village. Which can only mean one thing."

"What?" Lulu asked louder, still clawing at the answer she was searching for.

"There's someone inside the machine."

Just then, D turned his attention to the girl coming down the stairs, cutting away from the serious note of the conversation and leaving the old woman to fester with her questions. She wanted to ask him more about the battle with the monstrous machine and how he managed to escaped the cave-in alive.

The creaking of the boards shifting under the girl's weight on the stairs caught D's attention before the old woman noticed a stranger in her living room, wearing her old nightgown. The intense conversation still lingering in her mind carried over a heavy silence into the atmosphere.

The old woman was bleary eyed and tired, having taken little notice of the girl all night. She was just about to let out an amusing chuckle at the sight of a small slip of a girl in an old lady's night gown when she was caught by a pair of eyes that gave her a shock.

"Heavens, child! How did you get such eyes? Gave me a jolt, you did." She turned to D. "What did you say her name was again?"

D's silence told her. Lulu looked back at the girl to ask. "What's your name?"

But she was met with the same silence.

"She can't speak or write."

D was met with a puzzled look on Lulu's face. She looked back at the girl. "What do you mean…she's mute, then? Where are her parents? Do they know their child is running around with a Vampire Hunter?"

"It would seem she has no relatives. The woman that was taking care of her died."

"And she left her with you?"

D showed no signs of being offended. His lips held the usual stern line.

"Where is she from, anyway?"

D stole a glance at the girl. She had comfortably situated herself on the couch, looking at the pictures on the wall.

"…_No one knows who she is. I found her up in some Northern village. The people there were raving she walked right out of the Northern Portal_…"

"I wouldn't know," the Hunter uncrossed his arms and left the wall he was leaning against. "You should work on that list of the books that were stolen. Where did you want me to stay?"

Somewhat flustered, the old woman rose. "Oh. Yes, of course. I'll show you to the spare room. Not sure if you sleep by day or by night," she turned slightly red upon realizing what she had just said, and then noticed his blood stained shirt. "I'd appreciate if you'd take care not to get any blood on my linens. Do you need a doctor? The doctor's out of town from what I hear, but I can brew you up something or stop by the apothecary tomorrow. I've read dhampirs have amazing healing abilities. Are your wounds healing?" She asked as she headed down the hallway. D followed.

"The scratches and bruises should heal by morning, but the broken bones might be a couple days."

Lulu flipped on the light and looked up at him with wide eyes. "Bones? You broke a bone?" She eyed him with worry and then looked him up and down.

"Two broken ribs."

"And you're walking? You certainly are an odd one. You're lucky you haven't punctured your lung. I'll do the best I can to fix you up in the meantime until the doctor returns."

"Don't worry about me. Have a look at the girl tomorrow, see what you can do for her. She seems better but she hit her head before we left."

Lulu nodded. "My granddaughter should be here tomorrow. She's coming to stay with me so I can teach her about our family's ancient practices. I'll see what we can do for the girl."

D nodded.

"Just leave the bloody clothes on that chair and I'll come and get them in the morning." Lulu shut the door.

The beautiful dhampir took in a deep breath and winced slightly at the pressure from his ribs. In truth, every breath felt like a fresh sear of pain. Though good at concealing his agitation, D wanted nothing more than to lay down. Taking off his coat and peeling away his bloody shirt, he looked in a mirror and saw just what the extent of the damage was. An ordinary person witnessing this site might not be able to take their eyes off the perfectly sculpted chest and stomach of ivory pallor classic only to Vampires. Across his torso were violet bruises that marred his flesh as toned as marble, dappling the body of a youth that would put even the god Adonis to shame. The bruises should have turned a sickly yellow by now. D let out another soft sigh.

At least the lacerations had stopped bleeding. He turned out the light and laid down, finding the shift of a mattress beneath his weight a more uncomfortable feeling than an inviting one. D had become rather accustomed to sleeping on dirt and gravel. Silently having yearned for what most overlooked, now the feeling of a pillow beneath his head and sheets caressing his skin felt almost too close for comfort. Being a wounded warrior made him feel vulnerable.

"Don't be so hard on yourself. Just sleep it off and give me a couple of the usual elements tomorrow and you'll be fine."

D closed his eyes to be greeted by the usual nightmares.

When he awoke the next day, the curtains were drawn and the room was blessedly dark. He knew it to be around mid-day but was caught off guard by the sound of voices coming from the living room. He saw his garments were folded neatly and devoid of blood on the same chair and his sword remained untouched by his side. With a wince, D got up.

After Old Lulu had bade D goodnight, the old woman had given the girl a warm wool comforter. In which the girl had promptly wrapped around herself like a burrito and drifted off to a deep sleep on the couch. In the late morning, she awoke to the tickling sensation of someone stroking the strands of her soft hair, and was greeted by a grisly face.

"That's some mighty purdy snowy hair ya got there…"

The girl's eyes went as wide as saucers in alarm as she perked up and cornered herself against the couch.

"Get away from her." A dark voice from the hallway deadpanned.

Lance stood up and backed away from the couch with his hands in the air as if being held hostage. "Now wait jes' a moment. I didn't mean anythin' by it."

Alerted from the distraction, a chipper voice called "That's her?! That's the girl!?" It was Piper.

Mina turned her raven haired head from the table where she was sitting and looked at D with a calm expression. "Hello, D. We meet again. I see you've met my grandmother." She watched for a change of expression on his face.

Now he could place it. The traces of an accent that lingered in Old Lulu's voice was perfected in the thick accent of her granddaughter. Upon looking around, he noted that Kyle, the one who's brother was killed, wasn't present. Yet the reason for the presence of Piper and Lance was one D couldn't place. Interpreting his silence as confusion, or perhaps sensing D's agitation, Mina tried to explain. She spoke as if she was trying to appease him - trying to take the pressure off Lance who was caught like a child with his hand in a cookie jar. All the while Mina was talking softly, the ever perceptive Hunter took notice of the look of intoxication in Lance's eyes. Not once did he lift his gaze from that eerie girl. Whatever spell the woman looking over her had placed upon her had definitely worn off, and now D understood the impact of the old woman's words. To be beautiful was its own curse. Being a dhampir, D knew that curse all too well.

Mina explained that Piper was her neighbor, and returning home from visiting relatives in another town for the Summer. Lance was merely passing through town on a business call and was staying at the local Inn. And Kyle was currently making arrangements to prepare for the funeral of his departed brother. The party had arrived early morning and were given warning in advance about the dhampir Hunter in town and the ruckus he had caused. Everyone was shocked he arrived in town half a day before they did, but Mina was surprised it was her grandmother that had hired him. And had taken him in when the town rebelled.

Old Lulu made her way down the stairs, holding a box of sorts. "Ah, D. So you're awake. No need to introduce you to everyone, they've told me this morning they've met you previously out on the Frontier. Thank goodness you were there to save Lance here from that werewolf." Her voice was half-hearted and heavy with something else on her mind. "We were in the process of picking a name for the girl. Have any ideas? Everyone else's stinks."

"Hey!" Called Piper.

"We're not naming her She-Ra, so get over it!"

Lulu turned to D. "Don't just stand there, have a seat. We were hoping we could draw out a name for her using our mediums, but names are always tricky." Lulu set down a cup of coffee on the table. "Mina is trying her hand at crystal gazing, but I've been doing it my whole life and I got nothing on her. It's like there's a block. I tried divination this morning, crystal reading, and I refuse to do channeling, that's too dangerous. But it's difficult to get a name when our mediums aren't designed to work like that. My tarot deck is a last resort, but it will only give me clues about her traits and personality, hopefully what's hidden and we cannot see, but we've had no luck so far on this girl." She grumbled.

Old Lulu sat down perplexed and annoyed. D watched as she did the proper shuffling for her cards, mumbled the right words, and then laid out a strange pattern on the table. Everyone grew quiet and listened. But then Lulu sighed like it had went wrong. With no explanation to anyone, she aggressively collected the cards back together only to re-shuffle them. This time she laid out a different pattern.

"Nothing. Nothing is reading this girl." She said with great frustration and hands in the air from defeat. "I can't get anything to work properly. I've had this happen before with a deck or two, but never **all of my mediums at once**…"

The girl sat quietly on the couch, observing the people in the other room with curious eyes.

"Wait…" Mina said. "You taught me that the spirits describe what they want us to see, right? Well, maybe we're just not interpreting correctly."

"By getting nothing?"

"Exactly. Maybe we're getting nothing for a reason. Maybe the spirits want us to name her Nobody." Mina shot the girl who's beauty surpassed her own a look of annoyance, hoping to drive her point home.

"What if you just choose one card?" Piper asked innocently. She grabbed a random card and held it up. "Death. Maybe not."

"No no no, wait. Maybe that'll work…" Lulu called. She shuffled the deck and then displayed the cards again. "Mina, why don't you try."

Mina picked up a card. "I don't get it." She flung it carelessly on the table. "'The Empress.' What does that tell us? Nothing."

"Well, let's think about it," Piper said.

Mina sighed and started naming off adjectives in a bored tone: "Fertility, Maternity, Womanhood. Nothing that would describe a girl."

"Oh come on, that's not all that it means. Name the rest of them."

"It doesn't matter, it won't help us."

Amidst their bickering, the girl in the other room slowly surrendered from the security of her comforter and ventured barefoot across the room unnoticed. She picked up the card on the table and looked at it. She could no more understand what it meant than if she was asked to explain the theory of Milton.

"Wait…" Lulu said. A changed washed over her as if something was snapping into place. She took the card from the girl's hand and studied it. She stood by D and whispered aloud Mina's words back to herself, "Describe what you see…"

The name that flowed from D's lips like a whisper was enough to still the room;

"…Freya."


	5. Chapter 5 : Freya

**Author Note: **I got a hold of the Vampire Hunter D books in Japanese up to volume 15. While I am not fluent in Japanese, can you imagine how determined I am to be now? Enough to take on learning Kanji, which should be hours of "fun." But it'll be worth it!

**Vampire Hunter D : The Mysterious Girl from the North**

**Chapter 5**

**

* * *

**

During the following days, Freya's personality began to blossom. Though she was reclusive around the adults, she seemed to perk up when she was around Piper, the closest girl to her age. Piper was overjoyed to have another teenage girl in the village, being rather starved for friendship. On one day, she invited the girl over to her house where they spent hours in her room. Piper wanted her to be caught up on all the things she felt the teenage girl had been missing.

"Here, what do you think of this song? It's by a new band from the Capitol. Oh! Here's that magazine I was talking about. Don't you think this guy is cute? You can barrow it if you want. I know you can't read, but you can look at the pictures. This is what we call 'eye candy' -Oh don't look at me like that!" Piper laughed and went on talking as Freya sat on her floor listening intently with a genuine smile on her face.

Piper handed Freya a stack of magazines. "I really hope you get to stay here and go to school with me. Then they can teach you how to read and write, and we can write letters to each other!" The spunky brunette grinned. Then a serious look came over her. "You really can't remember anything, can you…?" She asked softly.

Freya shook her head 'no' with a saddened expression.

The adults seemed glad when they noticed the change in the girls as they developed a friendship for each another. Piper was gaining a companion and Freya was slowly coming out of her shell.

"It's important in times like these for a young girl to have a friend to grow up with and confide in," said the old Gypsy woman.

Piper had given Freya some of her old clothes and anything else she felt the 'girl-who-had-nothing' might need. The odd girl, though unable to utter a single word, seemed to have her own way of communicating. Her face was more expressive now that she had warmed up to some of the people around her, and now she almost always wore a smile on her face. When she was with Piper, her smile would break into an all around grin as the girls would laugh, albeit silent on Freya's part.

It was easy to understand when the mute girl was smiling and when she was laughing, for when she laughed she clutched her sides and doubled over. Though Freya didn't know any sort of official sign language, she seemed to have developed her own characters. Perhaps this was her way of communicating with people, though she seemed to only be this animated around Piper. Thumbs up meant, "Okay!" A wink meant, "I understand." And sometimes, "I adore you," was by forming her hands into the shape of a heart.

Other times she would look up at the ceiling in playful annoyance, stick her tongue out at Lance when he wasn't looking, and even once flipped off Mina behind her back. When Lance saw this he howled with laughter, and Piper laughed so hard she had tears in her eyes.

"She must have learned that from you!" The middle aged man laughed.

"I didn't teach her that! Wait, wait! -You've gotta see her impression of D! Hey, Freya! What's D?"

Freya grinned and put her fingers beside her lips in the form of fangs. Lance and Piper laughed so loud that Old Lulu stomped into the room with a scowl on her face.

"What is so funny? You girls are always acting silly around each other. Why don't you two make yourselves useful and run an errand for me? And Lance, what are you doing always lurking around my house, don't you have business to attend to?"

It was clear the old woman was in a fowl mood as she fumbled with her pockets and pulled out a piece of paper. "Girls, I want you to stop by the apothecary for me and get some of the items from this list. Some of them are for that wound you sustained on your shoulder, Piper, while you were goofing off on the journey here. Or so my granddaughter tells me. And the other items are for the dhampir. His bones haven't mended yet."

It was true. D had become elusive to the humans who were awake during the day. All except Old Lulu, whose old age had thrown her into irregular sleeping patterns. Napping during the day, going to bed last and being first to rise. She would catch glimpses of the impersonal dhampir from time to time.

He slept during the daylight hours, but she happened upon him the other night and asked him about his injuries. He informed her that the bruises were gone. His busted lip from before now mended was proof of that, but the broken ribs had yet to fuse together. Normally what would take weeks for humans would take a normal dhampir merely days. And for a dhampir like D, could sometimes take only hours. Yet three days had gone by and it still pained him to sit up. Still, as far as the humans were concerned, the dhampir's slow path to recovery seemed normal to them.

Freya and Piper started out on the main road on a warm early Autumn day in the afternoon. Freya was wearing an old dress of Piper's, white with lace and fitted with a ribbon tied in a mock corset fashion. The short brown shoes on her feet were tanned leather. A bit worn around the edges, and buttoned up in an old-fashioned style. Piper had fussed with the girl's hair that morning, commenting on how she was like having a life-sized doll. A French braid started near wisps of her bangs and trailed its way down her back like snow fall.

"I'll race you!" Piper teased.

Freya had no idea where they were going, but happily complied as a smile broke across her face. She ran down the dirt road after Piper with the wind blowing through her hair and a new feeling that she relished.

* * *

"Are you there?" D's voice broke the silent interior of the darkly lit room.

A withered face took shape in the lines of his palm. "Yeah."

"I'm going outside to see what I can find for us."

A wry smile etched across the lips of the symbiote. "Heh heh…antsy to get out, are we?"

"I hate being bedridden," came the monotonous reply.

D threw back the covers and donned his hat, coat and boots. Stepping outside for the first time in days, he winced horribly as he was greeted with the intense flare of the afternoon sun. His eyes seared with pain, and for a brief moment he was left paralyzed until he adjusted to the daylight. Edging forward momentarily blind, his black boots found an off beat path that set out into the wilderness. Once the pathway took him into the denser part of the forest, the thicker foliage offered relief as it dappled shadows across his frame.

Although still feeling discomfort in his side, this is what D had been waiting for. To feel well enough to walk outside and gather some of the elements in an attempt to rejuvenate. Air wasn't hard to come by as a soft breeze rustled through the high branches of the pines. After a small bit of wandering, the sound of trickling water caught D's ears and it led him to a small creek.

The forest around him seemed inviting and alive, and the Hunter took a moment to sit on a mossy rock by the creek after the symbiote had had its drink. Off in the distance he could hear the sound of birds chirping, but any in close range of him could be heard rustling out of the branches as they took flight. Hardly anything wild came near him once it picked up his scent or felt his aura. All of Nature's majesty knew what he was.

"It's kinda nice out here," the Left Hand commented. "Quiet, for once. Too many people in that house if you ask me."

D made no reply. He listened calmly to the wind and the sound of the creek. His onyx black eyes held a far off look in them.

"D, what are you thinking about?"

The dhampir only stared forward looking into the evergreens, and the smaller deciduous trees beside them that craved the same attention from the Sun.

"You can't beat yourself up inside about that machine. Give it a few days and we'll come up with something. I wonder how the hell we got out of there anyway, because I can't seem to find any recollection about it either. Or perhaps that part tied to our memory was erased."

"Do you think she's human?"

The symbiotic being in his left hand tried to look at him the best it could. D was truly a mystery. Just when one thought they had begun to understand the gears grinding beneath that wide-brimmed travelers hat, the stoically beautiful hunter would go and throw them off.

"Oh no, not you too?"

"I can't seem to place it, but every fiber of my being tells me that she's human and nothing more."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. I got that strange feeling too, but when I tune in my senses, she's as human as the rest of them. Only thing is…the humans are feeling it too, and that's what puzzles me."

D pursed his lips together. At length, he got up from the rock and knelt down to the Earth. An eerie sound filled the air, the sound of crunching coming from his left hand. It would seem that Fire would have to come later. As some time passed, the Hunter was walking back on the pathway to return to the Old Gypsy's house.

When D got to the doorsteps of the house he could hear the sound of frantic voices inside. Upon opening the door he was greeted to the sight of a frantic Piper backed into a corner trying to answer questions coming from both Lance and Lulu at once.

"What do you mean 'she just took off'?"

"What happened?"

"I don't know! When we went into the store, she was fine. Then the owner's wife started pointing at her and calling her something. She got so upset she looked like she was about to cry and then she just took off! I called to her and ran after her, but when I rounded the corner she was gone!"

Lulu looked into Piper's green eyes with a stern frown. "Didn't you go looking for her?"

"I did! But after ten minutes of no luck I came back here to get help."

"Hmm….We've gotta find her before it gets too dark. It's not safe for young girls at night - or anyone. These parts aren't entirely eradicated from the creatures of the Night, and I've heard rumors of slave traders on the move."

The middle-aged man listening to their conversation scratched at his short beard with a wry grin. "No need to trouble yer-selves, I'll go lookin' for her. I'm up for the task."

"Lance will help you, Piper," said Lulu.

There would be no dispute about the wildcat bachelor looking for a girl all alone. The old woman would not be taken for a fool. She was somewhat annoyed by him always hanging around her house and halfway guessed he had affections for her granddaughter, but a deeper instinct gnawed at her that told her that was not all. The flame that ignited in the man's eyes simmered and his grin began to fade.

"What did she call the girl?"

All eyes turned towards the tall man in black standing in the foyer. A wide-brimmed travelers hat pulled low obscured his eyes, making his face impossible to read.

"Uh…it was a name I'd never heard before. I can't remember. Let me think…"

"A wench?" Mina spoke up from an occupied corner. "That's the usual name it takes to make a pathetic girl run off crying."

Lulu, frustrated with her granddaughter's vile comments about the girl over the past few days, retorted by calling her by her full name. "Shala-mina, would you quit it? There's no need to feel so threatened by a teenage girl. What has she ever done to you? You should be helping them look for her."

"Oh wait," said Piper. "I remember now…she called her a _succubus_. Whatever that means."

"I'll go," said D. It came as a low murmur to their ears and then he turned around and headed out the door once again.

Mina blinked a bit in surprise before standing up. "I'll go too." She followed after D, but he was no where in sight. It seems he didn't want human company or to team up with any party.

And with this, the humans, all except the old woman, left the house to search across town for the upset girl.

* * *

A half hour had gone by but to no avail. The bright sun was sinking closer to the earth as the last rays of golden light threatened to extinguish. D had retraced Piper's and the girl's steps hoping to find some person that could tell him which direction the girl had ran. He didn't stay inside the shop they went to for very long. When he asked the shop keeper which way the girl had gone, his wife only sneered that D 'had a touch of the Devil in him.'

He was about to return back to the house when two ebony haired little children walked up to him. A brother and sister.

"Excuse me, sir…Are you looking for an older girl?" The girl child asked.

D nodded.

"She's at our house," said the boy.

A mild look of confusion washed over D and he followed the children. They led him down the main road back to a house set against the hillside and away from the normal cluster of the village. But rather than leading him inside the house, they walked around it and into a grassy field.

"She's over there." The little boy pointed.

A quick glance told D that Freya was sitting beneath a tree among the grass with her back to him. Without a word, he made his way through the pale yellow grass that brushed against the hem of his coat. The children did not follow him, but instead went inside their home. They didn't seem to mind the strange girl in their field.

Freya didn't even hear a sound when the dhampir approached. When D stood beside her, she didn't even turn her face to meet him. It was if she wasn't surprised at all. D wondered if it was because the girl was possibly still upset. He gazed quietly at the setting sun before them. It illuminated Freya's hair and traced the contours of their silhouettes. All around them fluff from early Autumn flowers were capturing waves of light as they tousled lightly in the wind.

"Piper told us what happened."

No reaction. Her braid had come undone and her hair lay freely around her shoulders, gently flowing in the breeze.

"Do you always let opinions of others upset you?"

This garnered a reaction, albeit a mild one. The girl slowly turned her head in his direction, but she didn't lift her eyes to meet his. It seemed to slowly dawn on her that if anyone had felt the brunt of other people's opinions it was this man. D recognized the girl had reached the true meaning behind his words and sat down beside her. He wasn't one to give unsolicited advice, but she guessed this was the closest he would come to consoling her. They sat together in an air of mutual understanding for a moment. D had nothing more to say, and Freya couldn't say anything if she wanted.

After a while, she turned her face to glance at his. His eyes were reflecting the setting Sun set beneath dark lashes. Freya wondered what he was thinking. She hardly knew him, but she began to imagine what sort of things people had probably called him. _Demon. Devil. Vampire_. She hadn't known D for very long, and while she understood he was a force to reckon with and a creature partially belonging to Darkness, it began to form in her mind that none of those names suited him at all.

With this new found thought, she began to let her eyes roam across his face. He was so absorbed in his thoughts that he didn't seem to mind her staring at him. Freya found D to be a beautiful person, just like everyone else, but the look in her eyes didn't match the eyes of the helpless women and men who gazed upon him in lust. He seemed so sad to her in that moment. It seemed the man with iron will was susceptible to bouts of human emotions too. After all, she reminded herself, he wasn't completely a creature of Darkness. There was Light in there too.

And yet, a soft voice reached into his mind, as if it were a collection of his thoughts that seemed to ask himself; _What are you thinking about? _Before his eyes the light from the Sun was beginning to fade away. His mind took this symbolism to heart. _The light is dying_.

With this, his thoughts streamed back to a time from long ago. When he stood before a painting in the ruins of a town abandoned by the weather controllers. The frames were cracked by antiquity, but the meaning through the symbolism of their art would never fade with time. The art of the Nobility. And particularly, the meaning behind one painting that puzzled him greatly. Vampires reaching for the Light.

The unattainable world of Light, scorned by most of Noble blood but for a select few. For them, their souls ached for it. Unable to understand why and as mysterious to them as the bottom of the ocean for land dwellers, they where the creatures of Night that wanted simply wanted what they could not have. _He_ was one of them. D was fully aware of that. And much to D's dismay, the same blood that coursed through _his_ veins ran through D's too. But unlike the man that left waves of tragedies in his wake, D ached for something so much more inside…something instilled in him by a human being, rather than a Vampire.

He shifted his eyes to Freya. Caught by surprise, Freya looked away without blushing. He wondered how long she had been watching him - how long he had been lost in thought. And then she did something that left him completely unexpected.

A small gathering of birds had perched in the overhanging branches singing their farewell to the Sun. They had initially greeted Freya when she first sat down and she wondered why they had not flown away. A quick glance at the ground scattered with bird seed told her that the children probably made friends with the birds and were acquainted with human presence.

A dhampir was a different story.

Why the birds were still there puzzled her, and she got up from where she was sitting and stood before a branch. Reaching out her hand, one of the friendly black birds perched on her finger as accustomed with the children. But instead of giving the bird seeds, she knelt down beside the dhampir. D looked at her with a slightly puzzled face as she began to hold out her hand to him.

The little black bird did not fly away. It was as if it could not even feel the unholy miasma of his aura. Slowly, D held out his hand. A dhampir holding a bird that willingly did not fly away. It had never been done before.

Twilight had set in when the two began to head back. Upon passing the house, the children from earlier greeted them on the porch along with an older brother. Light filled the interior of the house and soon a shadow moved across the window and joined the children on the porch. It was their mother.

She wiped her wet hands on her apron. "Is everything alright out here?" She asked calmly.

D nodded.

"I ran into some folks in town looking for a missing girl and my kids here said there was a girl out in our field. I was going to go check and see if that was her, but then my kids told me someone found her. I just wanted to see if everything was all right." The woman took in Freya's appearance. "You're a lovely thing, do you live around here?"

D glanced at the girl for a moment. She couldn't answer for herself. "She's under Lulu's hospitality for the moment."

The woman smiled. "I didn't think she was from around here. I don't recall seeing any lasses that pretty around these parts. Come to think of it, or any young men that handsome either. You're the one they call 'D,' aren't you?"

The dhampir gave a single nod. She smiled. "I thought so. I've heard some impressive tales about you. Let's hope they're not just rumors. I hope you can really help us get rid of these nightmares, it'd help with the economy much. I hate seeing my youngest wake up in tears in the middle of the night. Anyway, we're the Ottoson family and I'm Miss Ottoson. Lemme know if there's anything we can do to help."

D gave a single nod and a tip of his hat. "Thank you."

The Hunter headed back with the girl somewhat lingering behind him. She turned her head to look back at the children on the porch as the littlest waved, "Bye!" A smile washed over her face. It was the first time D had seen her really smile.

When they got back to Lulu's home it was warmly lit inside, with the musky smell of incense wafting throughout the living room. Old Lulu had kind words for the girl, trying not to frighten her. Piper threw her arms around her and became emotional. Lance chided Piper for this and Mina had nothing nasty to say, but observed calmly.

Piper snapped at Lance, "So what if I'm crying, I was scared something happened to her. Thank God D found her."

Lance didn't seem amused. He had to put up with the over-reacting teenage girl as they searched through the town. "Yer makin' a big deal outta nuthin'. She's perfectly fine, so stop yer cryin'."

Lulu took the girl by the arm and led her over to the couch to have a seat away from the bickering people. The old woman then made her way over to her den where she kept some of her books and D met her there. It seemed he didn't want to listen to another argument break out once again. The old woman started opening up some of her books and flipping through the pages, mumbling words as she went.

Old Lulu looked up at D. "You mentioned to me some while ago that the old woman who was taking care of Freya before had put a spell on her to hide her appearance, but that it wore off. What kind of spell was it? I think it would be a wise choice if we tried to put that spell back on her again. 'Cause less problems for us. Sometimes beauty can be a curse." She said this while looking into D's eyes. He grasped that last remark was aimed at him.

But he understood the truth behind the Old Gypsy's words. It was the same words the dying woman had spoken before. Freya's appearance stunned like echoes from another world, but that caused problems. D had long heard the venom dripping in Lance's voice for days. The spell would be for her own protection, and the protection of those around her, like Piper.

In the other room, the voices got louder.

"**You're** the bastard that wanted to abandoned her! I'm the only person here who really cares about her!"

"Yer damn right! I don't second guess for a moment I didn't do the right thing, you gotta do what 'ya gotta do to survive! The Vampire Hunter saved her, so quit yer bitchin'!"

"The Vampire Hunter left us!" Mina spoke up with a hot tone. "Need I remind you that he was suppose to help us back to town? But it's okay, he's good looking, so I can forgive him for the fact I had to **walk**."

"Oh, boo hoo! You broke a nail. I offered you my seat on Lance's horse but you didn't take it. You've been nothing but mean to Freya anyways."

Lulu slammed down her book and walked into the other room. "Alright! That's enough!"

"Don't yell at me!" Mina snapped. "I have every right to be angry." And then all at once everyone jumped to their own defense in an attempt to out-justify the others for why they were angry. One hot remark ignited the others and soon Old Lulu was in the yelling match trying to get everyone to stop arguing amongst the non stop swearing.

In the other room, their voices carried to Freya's ears as comments regarding her ignited such a fiery fight. She brought her knees to her chest and stared down at the floor with a numb expression.

All at once the people in the other room heard a loud _**CRACK! **_

Everyone stopped shouting and a couple people even jumped in surprise. Everyone looked to see that the mirror hanging above the mantle place had a single split straight down the center. Chunks of glass shards dangling from the mirror were starting to fall to the floor.

Freya paid no attention to everyone's shock. She continued to stare down numbly at the floor. Not even when she felt D's eyes upon her did she move.

* * *

Midnight found D and Lulu sitting in the dining room. Piper had gone back to her house and Lance returned to the Inn. Mina retired to her room and Freya had fallen asleep. The old woman had moved the broken mirror with D's help and cleaned up the glass shards. Sitting at her table, she took a gulp of her tea and sighed.

"For the life of me I can't seem to find anything right now that would come close to whatever that spell was. I'll have to search again through my books tomorrow, but now I'm starting to believe more books have gone missing. I just don't understand why anyone would want to take my books…"

D stared down at his tea. Lulu had planked it down in front of him without giving him the chance to say he didn't want any. It seems she wanted company to enjoy some tea with her, so D humored her and took a sip.

"Are you healing at all? You seem to be doing better."

D nodded. "One more day and my ribs will be fully fused."

Her eyes got wider. "I'd heard dhampirs could heal quickly, but I've never met a dhampir besides you before. It seems neat to finally met what you only hear stories about. Like you're some kind of exotic creature." She halfway chuckled at her own remark. "Though I wouldn't want to be you for the world. No offense."

"None taken," the dhampir said while bringing the cup to his lips. After a moment, he broke the tranquility. "…Do you know anything about a place called the Northern Portal?"

Lulu's eyes went as wide at saucers. She set down her cup and had a small coughing fit. "You've got to be kidding me…"

D looked up at her with a serious expression.

"I've heard rumors about a land far North from here that very few people have actually _seen_. They say it lies passed the great mountains and glaciers and is among one of the worlds geographical oddities. It's flat and no snow ever falls. Just this brown dusty, freezing land where the wind never stops blowing and is strong enough to knock a grown man flat. Some people think that the Nobility engineered the land to be that way, that could explain why it's so strange."

"But it's only a rumor?"

"I'm not sure. You see, some time ago I read an article that a scholar at the Capitol was sifting through the magnificent library that once belonged to the Nobility and found some sort of clue. Perhaps explaining the origin to the myth. But the people I heard the rumors from where travelers who had passed through our little village decades ago. They had never seen the land - they tell me it's suicide to even try to get through those icy mountains - but they told me some of the things their ancestors had passed down. Part of their mythology is that once unknown creatures of all shapes and sizes flooded out of the portal, and then something went wrong and closed the portal up. But the rumor still alive today is that every eon or so, something gets out."

D eyed her intently and didn't move. "What sort of things were reported to have come out of the portal?"

Old Lulu shot D a piercing look. If she had deciphered something from his words, some hidden meaning, she didn't say. "Heed my words, Vampire Hunter. Nothing _good_ ever comes out of the Northern Portal."

* * *


	6. Chapter 6 : Haunted

**Vampire Hunter D: The Mysterious Girl from the North**

**Chapter 6**

* * *

The void took hold of him once again. Empty, formless and devoid of mass. His thoughts were blurred and held no focus as the Vampire Hunter D entered a deep sleep. In time, the void gave way to meaning and the clouds presented forms. Before him was a woman with her back turned to him. Her hair fell in inky streams behind her and she held a single hand to cover her eyes. It would appear as if the woman was crying.

"_Mina_!" Someone called. 

D felt his heart jump. Could it be true? Slowly, he reached out his hand to the weeping woman. _Mina? That was the name of your--_

At the touch of his hand the woman turned her face to him. No, not **her** It was Lulu's granddaughter. He let his hand fall by his side. 

"_Mina, what's wrong_?" A disembodied voice asked. "_Why are you crying_?" The voice belonged to Piper.

"_He left me. He left me all alone, and he's never coming back_."

"_Huh_?" Piper echoed D's expression. "_What are you talking about? That doesn't sound like you_."

Mina's face changed into the face of a younger girl D had trouble recognizing at first. Mina faded away, and the lone girl stood in her place. A dark shadow hung over her eyes as she placed her hand on her stomach, which was heavily swollen. The girl was close to her time. 

"_I had no choice. What could I have done? D, I'm so scared_."

It was the lone girl that he had bid farewell to at a station long ago. A victim of the Nobility. A victim of his father. And then once more the figure changed. This time she wore longer black hair and had tears streaming down her cheeks. A shadow still hung over her eyes and she clutched the hand of an eight year old boy. 

"Doris…"

"_When are you coming back to us, D? I'm just not the same girl anymore. Not since you've left. I just can't make it on my own, not without you here_…"

His name echoed off her lips. How long had it been? A few years? Decades? No. It had been centuries. 

D felt his eyes open in the darkness as a soft ruby light emitted from them. In time the light began to dull and a hoarse voice called out to him.

"Another one of those dreams?"

He gave no reply. Instead, he stared up at the ceiling seeming lost in thought. Almost seeking something.

"I wonder what that old bat was talking about earlier. You think this 'Northern Portal' could be one of the Nobilities' experiments?"

"I don't know."

The voice grumbled at D's lack of answer or even enthusiasm for the subject. The dhampir just continued to stare off into the darkness with an aura of sadness almost surrounding him. His thoughts focused on sorting through the day's events until they fell on one person. She stayed in his thoughts for a while.

The symbiote sensed this. "You think she could be bad…?"

D cast his gaze down by his left side. "What makes you say that?"

"What that old woman said earlier. If this girl really did come from that place that everyone is afraid of, I think she could mean trouble. Let go of your thoughts, she's of no use to us."

"Perhaps you're right." D replied with a far off voice. His gaze returned to the ceiling. 

"I know, I know. The bird thing, it doesn't make sense. Do you know how hard it was not to eat that thing?" Said the left hand, followed by a perverted laugh. 

* * *

As dawn arrived the Sun's rays began to fill the interior of the living room with light. A new day had begun and the human inhabitants started to wake and busy themselves with daily activities. The old gypsy fortune teller was first to rise and was soon joined by her granddaughter, Mina. After they had both lightly tidied up the living room - careful as not to disturb the sleeping girl - Lulu went to work on teaching Mina some of the art of fortune telling. 

The older woman was mostly retired, living off her and her late husband's savings, but she continued to read fortunes for a small income. Lulu didn't want her spiritual gifts to become rusty and felt she was still an asset to the village.

Passing the art and the knowledge of the world of tarot down to her granddaughter helped Lulu to feel she was continuing an old tradition. It would mean her granddaughter would be an asset wherever she went. But passing down knowledge through word of mouth was one thing, whether Mina actually possessed any spiritual gift was another. The old woman put such thoughts to the back of her mind, though secretly inside she felt that her granddaughter would never be as skilled of a fortune reader as she was. 

Lulu left Mina to study with several books at the table while she busied herself in the kitchen preparing breakfast. As the smell of sausage sizzling in an iron skillet wafted through the living room, the young girl sleeping on the couch stirred until she opened her eyes. 

The morning light greeted Freya as the girl's bright blue eyes adjusted. Dust particles glistened in the rays of sunshine that peeked through the open curtains. Freya smiled to herself.

A knock came at the door and a voice shouted, "It's me, Piper! Open up!"

Mina left the table to let her inside. Lulu grumbled, "I suppose you want breakfast too?"

"No-no, I have good news! I ran into Miss Ottoson this morning at the market and told her about Freya. She says she could use the help around the house and with the children, and that she has the room to spare - She'll take Freya!"

Lulu looked on in surprise. "Well that **is** good news, and very nice of Miss Ottoson. Lord knows since the woman lost her husband she's had her hands full and could use the help. We'll make arrangements later and I'll speak to her later today when I head into town."

Piper grinned and ran into the living room as Freya was stretching to get up. She told her the news and Freya seemed to be just as happy, even if she couldn't say it. Freya had met Miss Ottoson the night before with D and had taken a liking to her children. Both girls were excited at the aspect of getting to grow up in the same town and go to school together. 

Another knock came to the door. 

Lulu grumbled once more and turned to Mina. "I can imagine who it is. I thought you told him to stop hanging around here because you're not interested." By the time she finished, she was at the door looking Lance in the face. 

"Hi, Lance." The old woman sighed.

In due time, and much to her annoyance, Old Lulu was feeding five people for breakfast all gathered neatly around her kitchen table. Despite her hard feelings though, she was inwardly gracious for the company in her house. The old woman had lived alone for so long.

Lance spoke up, "So where's that good 'fer nothin' dhampir Hunter?"

"Sleeping in the back room."

"While it's so bright and beautiful outside? Must have a strong Vampire half to sleep through a beautiful day like this. Say, which one of his parents was the Vampire, the mommy or the daddy?"

Piper found his childish references comical, but Old Lulu found him uneducated. "I wouldn't know, I've never asked. And it's non of your business either."

"Shoot, I was jus' curious is all. You got any more of those hash browns?" Lance took another helping. His Frontier twang was getting on the old woman's nerves. "Just seems weird to be a Vampire Hunter 'n all when you're part Vampire yourself."

"It's not weird at all," Lulu objected. "Children can't help who they're born to, and it's unfortunate to the children born from the union of both sides. Because in truth, they're not accepted by either one, Noble society or Humanity. Hunting Vampires is the only profession a half-breed can really be accepted for by humans. Outside of exterminating the Nobility, dhampirs have a very difficult time finding a living."

"Then why doesn't he jus' live among the Vampires?"

"Because Vampires don't want half-breeds." This time it was Mina who spoke, gloating at the chance to prove her knowledge. "They're too proud of a race to accept a half-breed as one of their own, so dhampirs are usually shunned for their human blood. But not all Vampires hated humanity, per say…"

Piper took a bite of her toast. "You mean that guy they call their 'Sacred Ancestor?' Yeah, I read something about him once. I always figured that if Vampires hated humans, and he was the King of the Vampires, that he'd be the worst one. But I read that some of the Nobles even opposed him because he wouldn't let them wipe out all the humans in their regions. Almost made it sound like he was a nice guy."

A mock smile turned up the corners of Mina's lips. "He cared for Humanity as whole in that he didn't wish for our extinction, but that didn't necessarily stop him from treating humans as chattel under his reign. From what I've read, thousands of men, women, and children had fallen victims to his experiments. And many of them gruesome. He didn't wish for Vampires to annihilate the human race, yes, but for individuals he cared not. He didn't care if he drained an innocent girl of her blood or unleashed thousands of monsters upon the world."

"So then…if he was so powerful, what happened to him?" Piper asked.

Mina thought for a moment before answering. "From what I understand he had a set of morals for the Nobility as a whole, but whether he followed those rules was up to him. He wasn't the meanest Vampire, or even the most evil, but he certainly was the most powerful. Because he was so powerful, his word was law, and not everyone agreed with that. Sometimes power can go to your head and corrupt your mind no matter how smart you are. 'Absolute power corrupts absolutely.' He earned himself a lot of enemies both human and Noble alike. So I think that's what got him thrown out of power and killed. But every once in a while on my journeys I hear of rumors that Vampires whisper that he still might be alive. But I don't believe it."

"I sure as hell hope not," said Lance. "Jus' thinkin' 'bout it gives me the chills. You sure are smart, Princess." The middle aged man winked at Mina.

"This is hardly proper table conversation." Lulu looked down at her plate with heavy eyes beneath a furrowed brow. "I wonder if D wants any of this. I'll go ask."

"I'll do it!" 

Before her grandmother could say a word Mina had already stood up from her chair and wiped her mouth with a napkin before marching off to the backroom. Lulu merely sighed, but Lance looked somewhat jealous. 

He looked over at Freya. "Hey, Freya. Do your impression of D." 

* * *

Mina quietly opened the door that belonged to the backroom where D was staying. Her garments rustled while she walked across the floor and over to his bed. The black garbed youth laid on his back atop the covers with one arm draped across his chest. His elegantly curved long sword lay not far away. Despite his powerful frame and stern expression while awake, he looked downright serene while asleep. The woman couldn't help but admire the mask that added a touch of youthful innocence no blood cold mar to his timeless face. 

Lost in his beauty as so many had time and time again, the woman didn't know what came over her as she found herself pressing her body against his. With how little his chest moved even for a single breath, she couldn't tell if he was sleeping or dead until his eyes shot wide open. The woman jumped when his eyes met hers.

"What do you want?"

"Nothing. My grandmother just wanted me to wake you to tell you that breakfast is ready." She bade a sweet smile.

D was somewhat at a loss for what to say or why the woman was laying in bed next to him. He'd never welcomed a woman to his bed before and he didn't think he was going to start now. 

"You can tell her I don't want any." And with that he got up. 

Mina scowled somewhat and left the room flushed. When the door shut, D opened the curtains and winced in the morning light. 

"Did I just hear a sigh from you? This isn't the first time a woman has jumped into bed with you. You'd think from the way your father made you that you'd be use to the attention by now. Or at least like it." 

The Hunter clutched his hand shut and muffled the other voice. 

No one could figure out why Mina's cheeks were so flushed as she made up an excuse to leave the house. She was gone by the time D finally emerged from the backroom dressed in his usual long coat and hat. He refused to eat anything, as usual. Lance was gone as well and Old Lulu thought she'd take the time to have a one on one conversation with the Hunter.

"Piper, why don't you take Freya to Miss Ottoson's home?"

The teenage girl nodded and got up from the table, putting her plate in the sink. Freya followed her example and ran to get dressed before heading out the door with Piper. 

"I have a list of the titles of the stolen books for you."

D took the paper from her hand and mused over it for a moment. "I'll see what I can do." He put the list in his pocket.

"And another thing…you get the horrible dreams, don't you?" The old woman asked the question with a tone of doubt.

"Doesn't everyone who stays here?" D interpreted this as a given. "If you're wondering if they bother me, they don't. They're only figments of my mind. Nothing real."

"The dreams are different for everyone, but mine are getting worse. I keep having these nightmares that something awful is going to happen that's going to affect everyone. Thing is, I'm not sure if it's our town or some place else. The cards told me to pick you, and I'm sure the world beyond has a reason for that. But I'm just at a loss as to why…" Here the woman stopped. 

She looked up at D with a truly troubled look in her eyes, and the dhampir could sense she was thinking about something deeper than she was conveying.

D finally broke the silence once he sensed she wasn't going to continue. "I don't understand."

"D, Freya doesn't get the dreams."

* * *

The girls walked to the Ottoson home, but the tow-headed girl's steps weren't as light as they usually were. Piper noticed this and took her hand. "Don't worry, Freya. There's no need to be nervous. You'll like living with the Ottoson family, I promise."

They walked up the steps of the porch to their destination and the spunky brunette knocked on the door. Miss Ottoson was home and welcomed them inside with nothing but smiles and hugs for both girls. Piper accepted any chance to be doted on, but Freya seemed to be rather distant in Miss Ottoson's company. While all three were seated in the living room with a cup of tea placed in front of them, Freya took a moment to look around while the others were lost in conversation. 

They paid her no mind as she rose from her chair and nonchalantly looked at the pictures on the walls and into the hallway. Pictures of Miss Ottoson when she was younger. Pictures of her and her late husband. Pictures of her four children. Freya had met three so far, two boys and one girl, but the toddler she had never seen and guessed the baby to be sleeping in one of the rooms. 

The awkward girl looked at her reflection in the glass of one of the pictures containing a photo of the family. Her eyes became sadder gazing at both her reflection and the picture together. She had hoped that looking at the photos and getting a feel for her new environment would help her feel better, but it didn't. Feeling as if she was trapped, Freya wandered further from the living room and opened the side door that lead to the open field she was at the day before. 

Sunshine greeted her, and with a breath of fresh air she tromped through the pale yellow grass and out into the open. Her feet led her toward the shrubberies just on the edge of the forest before she felt she was far enough from the house to let herself sit down. She took a deep breath and began to relax until a shadow fell over her. 

The shadow belonged to a tall man in a hat. 

Freya turned around half expecting to see D, but she saw Lance instead. He was towering over her with an odd gleam in his eyes. 

The girl immediately stood up and looked at the man in alarm. She was trying to process the odd look in his eyes and estimate if she could outrun him back to the house. In the second she made up her mind to take flight the grown man launched at her. Her body was whipped around so quickly that she lost her footing in mid flight and fell to the ground. 

He toppled on top of her and pinned her hands above her head. Freya had never felt so frantic in her life. Her heart was pounding in her ears, and wriggle as she may, she could not physically overpower the grown man. If she could not use her hands then she was going to do the best to use her feet, but his body was crushing her hips and she couldn't free her legs. The girl squirming beneath him to get free excited him even more and he leaned forward to lick her face.

Never had Freya wished she had a voice to scream with more than now. Try as she may, not a sound escaped her. She couldn't even scream for help. She felt Lance's fingers tugging at the lace on her bodice when they suddenly stopped. The man let out a sharp cry as if something stung him and the girl felt the weight above her being lifted. 

Lance crumpled on the grass groaning in agony and Freya looked on in surprise. And then she felt it too. A raw and piercing miasma that covered them both but seemed to be more directed at Lance. The black miasma rose from a figure in the shadows of the brush with two softly glowing red eyes. A sword was strapped to his back but unsheathed. D.

Freya instantly rose and ran towards him, but his aura was unwelcoming and almost whispered, _Don't come near me_. She hid herself behind the trunk of a redwood instead. 

D stepped closer to Lance. His step held no anger, and he was composed enough not to draw his weapon, yet the man continued to writhe in agony under the intense aura. And it was no wonder. Lance was feeling the full blast of the infamous aura of a Vampire. It was as if a black wall of Death had crept over him and it turned the contents of his stomach sour. He started to vomit right on the spot. 

"Stop…Please…I beg of you!" 

D's eyes wavered slightly with emotion. The calm glow in his eyes dimmed and the aura withdrew. The man was choking back sobs and vomit as he got up. Many humans were aware that the Nobility and even dhampirs could use their unholy auras as weapons, but Lance had never known just what the extent of that was, until now. He grabbed his hat off the ground and ran. 

D stood still for a moment as if nothing had happened.

"Don't feel bad for letting your other half show. He deserved it. Lucky for him you were merciful." D looked down at his left side with a somewhat pained expression. 

A snap from behind a tree caught his attention and he turned around. The girl figured that with the danger gone she could come out of hiding. She stood beside the tree and looked at D with lost eyes. All at once she ran to him and threw her arms around his waist. The dhampir looked somewhat surprised and resisted the urge to step back.

Many times girls had thrown themselves at him over the pettiest things, just to be held in his arms. A lost bonnet or a sprained finger. But it wasn't until Lance had gone did Freya actually cry. Through the whole ordeal not once had she shed a tear. Now she wept bitterly against D's chest. She didn't know why she found comfort in him, only that he saved her. 

No aura could be felt from him as he let the distraught girl cry. Her hands had slipped under his coat and around his waist with her fingers latching onto the back of his shirt. She hugged him close to her as she cried against his chest, faintly hearing the sound of his heartbeat. D wasn't use to having people this close to him. 

In due time, the girl stepped back. She was grateful to him, but for some reason she couldn't let her eyes meet his. Instead, she dried her tears and walked back to the house. A short time after she and Piper had left, Lulu had finished her private talk with D and thought it a good idea to join the pair at Miss Ottoson's house. His employer invited him along, and when they got to the house to find that Freya had wandered off, D had a suspicion as to where he might find her. 

He didn't tell her to dry her tears or even leave her with words of comfort, but he did walk beside her on their way back to the house.

* * *

That night, it was arranged that Freya would stay with Miss Ottoson, beginning her move-in immediately. This was easy, being as how Freya had hardly any possessions of her own outside of the ones Piper gave her. The party had learnt of what happened and the town sheriff locked Lance in jail once he confirmed with D that the story was indeed true. Piper offered to stay the night with Freya, but it wasn't Piper's side Freya stayed by, it was D's. 

When they were outside and it was time for him to leave, she seemed upset to the point of tears. Even after being reaffirmed earlier by Piper that Lance was locked in a cell, she didn't want D to go. 

D sensed for whatever reason the girl harbored a new kind of fear and that it would intensify if she didn't feel safe. With the others inside, he spoke to her quietly, but in his usual curt manner.

"Your grandmothers last words were that I take you to the next town. Piper will look after you while I'm gone." And then he turned around and left.

D reached his employer's house the same time she did, even though she left the Ottoson home before him. But when Old Lulu didn't hear D's footsteps behind her on her way up the porch, she turned around and called to him, "Aren't you coming in?"

"You should get some sleep." Came the gruff reply.

"D, where are you going?"

But he did not answer. The old gypsy watched as his silhouette melded with the shadows of the night and turned to darkness completely. With what would have taken a human a half hour took D fifteen minutes. That was the amount of time it took for him to make the trek through the town and the forest, and up into the hills. 

In the darkness of the night, he stared into the gaping mouth of the yawning mine. The moon hung ominously above him and bats scurried in and out of the cavern. His left hand spoke up, "I have a bad feeling about this."

* * *


End file.
